Study of Field-Induced Evolution of the Domain Geometry in Lithium Niobate and Lithium Tantalate Single Crystals by In Situ Optical Method

Abstract

The registration of light diffraction on domain structure was applied for studying the domain structure evolution during polarization reversal in single crystals of different representatives of lithium niobate LiNbO 3 and lithium tantalate LiTaO 3 family. The evolution of the angular dependence of diffracted light intensity during polarization reversal was used for characterization of the domain structure kinetics. Comparison of the angular dependences with corresponding instantaneous domain patterns allows to propose the interpretation of the domain structure evolution. Spatial filtration of the diffracted beam allowed to separate the relative input of domain walls of different orientations with high temporal resolution.