Rearrangement of Rare Earth Defects Under Domain Inversion in LiNbO₃

Abstract

Using high resolution excitation-emission spectroscopy we investigated the changes occurring in the optical transition of Er^3☎ ions in LiNbO₃ during inversion of the ferroelectric axis. In stoichiometric LiNbO₃ we find that a drastic reconfiguration among the different defect sites takes places favoring those centers which have already been dominant in the as-grown sample. The reconfiguration is attributed to changes in the arrangement of the local charge compensators. Furthermore, we find a small shift of the emission transition energy, which is consistent with an increase of the intrinsic electric field. These findings make the Er^3☎ ions very suitable probes for 3D imaging of domain structures and for in-situ studies of the dynamics of the domain inversion processes and the defect/domain wall interaction.

Keywords:

• Domain reversal
• Er^3☎ ions
• Site-selective spectroscopy