The effects of polishing on the formation of 90° domain walls in a barium titanate single crystal

Abstract

In an {100} BaTiO₃ single crystal plate of 0.2 mm thickness, it was observed that the surface of thin plate was deformed during the polishing process and, as a result, the 90° a-a boundaries were partially stabilized. These stabilized 90° a-a walls were reappeared at the exact their positions after repeated paraelectric-to-ferroelectric phase transition, i.e., they show a memory effect. These effects can be explained by the deformed surface layers and the characteristic anisotropy of 90° walls.