Shift of the transition temperature in the growth bands of potassium dihydrogen phosphate monitored by electron paramagnetic resonance

Abstract

The authors have monitored the phase transition of KDP:Cr3+ for growth-band and regular samples (GB and R) by means of EPR, making use of the fact that when the crystal becomes ferroelectric upon cooling, each EPR line splits into two, owing to the presence of two ferroelectric domains. In this way, they have detected an increase in Tc for the GB samples and have interpreted this result according to the model presented by Gonzalo (1989). Also, the model allowed them to estimate the relative distortion of the KDP lattice across the c axis in the GB samples.