X-ray white beam topography of self-organized domains in flux-grown BaTiO3 single crystals

Journal article

The phenomenon of self-organization of domains into a “square-net pattern” in single-crystal, flux-grown BaTiO3 several degrees below the ferroelectric to paraelectric phase transition was investigated using in situ synchrotron x-ray topography. The tetragonal distortion of the crystal was determined by measuring the angular separation between the diffraction images received from 90° a and c domains in the projection topographs, and shows a rapid decrease towards 110 °C, the onset temperature for self-organization. The onset of self-organization is accompanied by bending of the {100} lattice planes parallel to the crystal surface, which produces a strain that persists up to and beyond the Curie temperature, where the crystal becomes cubic and the self-organized domains disappear. At the Curie point, the bending angle α100 = 8.1(±0.3) mrad is at a maximum and corresponds to the radius of curvature of the surface being 16.3(±0.6) mm.

Authors: Walker, D; Glazer, A; Gorfman, S; Baruchel, J; Pernot, P

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Journal: Physical Review B
• Volume: 94
• Issue: 2
• Article number: 024110
• Publication date: 2016-06-12
• Acceptance date: 2016-06-01
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.94.024110
• EISSN: 2469-9969
• ISSN: 2469-9950