Piezoelectric force microscopy (PFM) and Raman confocal microscopy have been used for studying the nanodomain structures in congruent LiNbO3 and LiTaO3 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 LiNbO3 and LiTaO3 via pulse laser irradiation and the electric field poling of LiNbO3, 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 LiNbO3 and LiTaO3 appeared as a result of discrete switching.

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The current paper presents a piezoelectric bimorph actuator produced by direct bonding of lithium niobate wafers with the mirrored Y and Z axes. Direct bonding technology allowed to fabricate bidomain plate with precise positioning of ideally flat domain boundary. By optimizing the cutting angle (128° Y-cut), the piezoelectric constant became as large as 27.3 pC/N. Investigation of voltage dependence of bending displacement confirmed that bimorph actuator has excellent linearity and hysteresis-free. Decrease of the applied voltage down to mV range showed the perfect linearity up to the sub-nm deflection amplitude. The frequency and temperature dependences of electromechanical transmission coefficient in wide temperature range (from 300 to 900 K) were investigated.

Polarization reversal during heating-cooling cycles was investigated in MgO doped lithium niobate (MgO:LN) crystal using piezoresponse force microscopy. The essential dependence of the domain structure evolution scenario on the maximal temperature in the cycle has been revealed experimentally. It has been shown that the heating of the engineered domain matrix from room temperature to 85 C leads to light size reduction of the isolated domains at the matrix edges, whereas the heating to 170 C leads to essential reduction of the domain size. The opposite strong effect of the domain formation and growth during cooling after pulse heating have been revealed in single domain MgO:LN. The simulation of the time dependence of the pyroelectric field during heating-cooling cycle allowed to reveal the temperature hysteresis and to explain all observed effects taking into account the temperature dependence of the bulk conductivity. V C 2013 AIP Publishing LLC [http://dx