Domain structures and polarization arrangements in PbTiO3 single crystals

Ferroelectric domain structures and the corresponding polarization arrangements of flux-grown PbTiO3 single crystals have been studied using optical and electron microscopy. Crystals with different etching conditions reveal three dimensional arrangements of the domains. Most of the specimens show banded structures which exhibit relatively high energy and therefore enhances the etching of these boundaries. Drawing schematic polarization configurations, one finds that head-to-head, tail-to-tail and other unconventional polarization configurations exist constantly in PbTiO3 crystals, indicating that high electric energy configurations are quite common in lead titanate crystals.