Electro-Optic Kerr Effect and Polarization Reversal in Deuterium-Doped Rochelle Salt

Abstract

Polarization reversal as a function of nucleation and growth of domains in ferroelectric deuterium-doped Rochelle salt was investigated by means of the electro-optic Kerr effect. The results indicate that a phenomenological model based on statistical nucleation of domains in a plane including the ferroelectric axis followed by a two-dimensional sidewise expansion of the domains, will adequately account for the experimental observations for fields larger than 50 volts/cm. For lower fields, the process is controlled primarily by the nucleation of new domains due to localized stresses which hinder the displacement of domain walls.