TEMPERATURE-DEPENDENCE OF THE STATIC DIELECTRIC-CONSTANT OF NATURALLY-OCCURRING MONOCRYSTALLINE FORSTERITE

To fulfil a need in atomic simulation calculations, the static dielectric constant and its temperature dependence were measured for natural monocrystalline forsterite (Mg//1//. //8//6Fe//0//. //1//4SiO//4) The measurements were made over a frequency range 11 kHz to 13 MHz. The value of the dielectric constant measured here (8. 12 plus or minus 0. 4) is somewhat larger than the room temperature value for pure Mg//2SiO//4. The present work has been carried out on naturally occurring forsterite which contains 7% FeO. We estimated the effect of the presence of iron using the polarizability additivity rule.