Structure relationship to dielectric, elastic and chiral properties

Crystallography provides a major approach toward reaching an understanding of the relationship between crystal structure and material physical properties. The specific relationships of five highly structure dependent physical properties, namely piezoelectricity, pyroelectricity, ferroelectricity, ferroelasticity and optical activity, to atomic arrangement are developed in this Lead Article. The major attributes of each property, together with the structural measurements required to establish the property-structure relationship, are introduced and illustrative results for each are given. Predictive criteria that emphasize the insight leading to new property-structure relationships are presented as is an expanded experimental access to the crystallographic study of materials.