Investigation of domain structure and switching processes in ferroelectrics by the liquid crystal method

Abstract

Abstract Liquid crystals have been used as a visualizing medium for the study of the domain structure of ferroelectric crystals since 1976. This time was sufficient for estimating the method potentialities, understanding the causes and nature of the orientational effects in thin liquid crystal layers in sandwiches with ferroelectric crystals, and for achieving a certain progress in understanding the processes associated with the dynamics of the domain structure of ferroelectrics and its features associated with the presence of liquid crystal layers on polar surfaces of ferroelectric crystals. Below we shall consider the most important results obtained in the investigation of the static and dynamic domain structures, and the switching processes in ferroelectric crystals obtained by the liquid crystal method.