Potassium niobate

Potassium niobate

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Names
IUPAC name Potassium niobate
Other names niobate, niobium potassium oxide, potassium columbate
Identifiers
CAS Number	12030-85-2
Properties
Chemical formula	KNbO3
Molar mass	180.003 g·mol−1
Appearance	White rhombohedral crystals
Density	4.640 g/cm3
Vapor pressure	{{{value}}}
Except where otherwise noted, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C [77 °F], 100 kPa).
Infobox references

Potassium niobate (KNbO₃) is a perovskite ferroelectric crystal. It has nonlinear optical coefficient properties, making it common in the manufacture of lasers. Nanowires of potassium niobate have been used to produce tunable coherent light. The LD₅₀ for potassium niobate is 3000 mg/kg (oral, rat).

Crystal Structure

On cooling from high temperature, KNbO₃ undergoes a series of structural phase transitions. At 435 °C, the crystal symmetry changes from cubic centrosymmetric (Pm3 ̅m) to tetragonal non-centrosymmetric (P4mm). On further cooling, at 225 °C the crystal symmetry changes from tetragonal (P4mm) to orthorhombic (Amm2) and at −50 °C from orthorhombic (Amm2) to rhombohedral (R3m).

Use in research

Potassium niobate has been found useful in many different areas of materials science research, including properties of lasers, quantum teleportation, and it has been used to study the optical properties of particulate composite materials.

In addition to research in electronic memory storage, potassium niobate is used in resonant doubling, a technique developed at the IBM Almaden Research Center. This technique allows small infrared lasers to convert output into blue light, a critical technology for the production of blue lasers and technology dependent upon them.