Abstract

Because of their relative ease of fabrication, β-quinol clath-rates are one of the most studied among non- stoichiometric inclusion compounds. (quinol)₃(CH₃OH)_x with x close to 1 has shown¹ spontaneous polarization at a critical temperature near 66 K accompanying induced voltage across the sample. During the phase transition, the enclathrated methanol undergoes a sudden cooperative re-orientation during which the angle between the methanol C–O bond and the crystallographic C-axis changes discontinuously. This produces a large pyroelectric coefficient for high occupancy methanol clathrates, which suggests the possibility for a sensitive bolometer. We report on experiments where a clathrate connected by two electrical leads inside a He Dewar and held just below the transition temperature is exposed to laser radiation. By observing the voltage change, we can detect a wide range of IR and FIR wavelengths by using CO₂-pumped superradiated FIR and Nd:YAG lasers. By keeping the sample size and the temperature gap small, the detector can be made very sensitive to incoming radiation.

© 1992 Optical Society of America