Formation of a Regular Domain Structure in TGS-TGS plus Cr Crystals with a Profile Impurity Distribution

A complex investigation of TGS-TGS + Cr crystals with a profile impurity distribution of chromium ions Cr3+ has been carried out at the macrolevel (measurement of dielectric properties by the method of nematic liquid crystals) and microlevel (domain structure according to atomic force microscopy data). It is established that periodic doped layers are formed only in individual growth pyramids in the regions where the polarization vector has a nonzero component along the normal to the growth faces rather than throughout the entire crystal volume. The domain configuration at the boundary of growth layers with different impurity compositions has been studied by piezoelectric force microscopy. The static unipolarity of layers with and without chromium impurity is approximately identical, whereas the domain-wall density in doped regions is higher than that in undoped ones by a factor of about 7.