A note on the structure of lithium niobate, LiNbO₃

The structure of LiNbO₃, determined by Abrahams and co-workers, is more easily understood if it is described in terms of displacement parameters from an idealized structure with hexagonally close-packed oxygen atoms. The relationship to perovskite, the significance of the thermal changes, and the atomic movements in the ferroelectric reversal, all become more obvious and predictable in this way.