Giant polarization ripple in transverse pyroelectricity

Pyroelectricity originates from spontaneous polarization variation, promising in omnipresent non-static thermodynamic energy harvesting. Particularly, changing spontaneous polarization via out-of-plane uniform heat perturbations has been shown in solar pyroelectrics. However, these approaches present unequivocal inefficiency due to spatially coupled low temperature change and duration along the longitudinal direction. Here we demonstrate unconventional giant polarization ripples in transverse pyroelectrics, without increasing the total energy input, into electricity with an efficiency of 5-fold of conventional longitudinal counterparts. The non-uniform graded temperature variation arises from decoupled heat localization and propagation, leading to anomalous in-plane heat perturbation (29-fold) and enhanced thermal disequilibrium effects. This in turn triggers an augmented polarization ripple, fundamentally enabling unprecedented electricity generation performance. Notably, the device generates a power density of 38 mW m−2 at 1 sun illumination, which is competitive with solar thermoelectrics and ferrophotovoltaics. Our findings provide a viable paradigm, not only for universal practical pyroelectric heat harvesting but for flexible manipulation of transverse heat transfer towards sustainable energy harvesting and management.