Investigation of the nanodomain structure formation by piezoelectric force microscopy and Raman confocal microscopy in LiNbO{sub 3} and LiTaO{sub 3} crystals

Journal Article · Thu Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3623778· OSTI ID:22036709

Shur, V Ya; Zelenovskiy, P S; Nebogatikov, M S; Alikin, D O; Sarmanova, M F; Ievlev, A V; Mingaliev, E A; Kuznetsov, D K ^[1]

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1. Ferroelectric Laboratory, Institute of Physics and Applied Mathematics, Ural State University, 620083 Ekaterinburg (Russian Federation)

Piezoelectric force microscopy (PFM) and Raman confocal microscopy have been used for studying the nanodomain structures in congruent LiNbO{sub 3} and LiTaO{sub 3} crystals. The high-resolution nanodomain images at the surface were observed via PFM. Raman confocal microscopy has been used for the visualization of the nanodomain structures in the bulk via layer-by-layer scanning at various depths. It has been shown experimentally that the nanodomain images obtained at different depths correspond to domain images at the polar surface obtained at different moments: the deeper the nanodomain, the earlier the moment. Such a correlation was applied for the reconstruction of the evolution of the domain structures with charged domain walls. The studied domain structures were obtained in highly non-equilibrium switching conditions realized in LiNbO{sub 3} and LiTaO{sub 3} via pulse laser irradiation and the electric field poling of LiNbO{sub 3}, with the surface layer modified by ion implantation. The revealed main stages of the domain structure evolution allow the authors to demonstrate that all geometrically different nanodomain structures observed in LiNbO{sub 3} and LiTaO{sub 3} appeared as a result of discrete switching.

• OSTI ID: 22036709
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 110, Issue 5; Other Information: (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
CORRELATIONS
CRYSTALS
DOMAIN STRUCTURE
ELECTRIC FIELDS
FERROELECTRIC MATERIALS
ION IMPLANTATION
LASER RADIATION
LAYERS
LITHIUM COMPOUNDS
MICROSCOPY
NANOSTRUCTURES
NIOBATES
PIEZOELECTRICITY
POLARIZATION
PULSES
RESOLUTION
SURFACES
TANTALUM OXIDES