Shapes of isolated domains and field induced evolution of regular and random 2D domain structures in LiNbO3 and LiTaO3

The variety of the shapes of isolated domains, revealed in congruent and stoichiometric LiTaO3 and LiNbO3 by chemical etching and visualized by optical and scanning probe microscopy, was obtained by computer simulation. The kinetic nature of the domain shape was clearly demonstrated. The kinetics of domain structure with the dominance of the growth of the steps formed at the domain walls as a result of domain merging was investigated experimentally in slightly distorted artificial regular two-dimensional (2D) hexagonal domain structure and random natural one. The artificial structure has been realized in congruent LiNbO3 by 2D electrode pattern produced by photolithography. The polarization reversal in congruent LiTaO3 was investigated as an example of natural domain growth limited by merging. The switching process defined by domain merging was studied by computer simulation. The crucial dependence of the switching kinetics on the nuclei concentration has been revealed. (c) 2005 Published by Elsevier B.V.