Electron acoustic imaging of BaTiO3 single crystals

Abstract

Scanning electron acoustic microscopy (SEAM) has been used in the observation of ferroelectric domain configurations in barium titanate single crystals. The contribution to the image contrasts is related to signal generation through a piezoelectric coupling mechanism. The results prove that SEAM really has the ability to show not only the surface shape and domain structures but also the subsurface domain structures. Furthermore, SEAM is a convenient, fast and nondestructive way of observing the ferroelectric domains compared with other methods.