Large-area regular nanodomain patterning in He-irradiated lithium niobate crystals
| Autor: | Ophir Gaathon, S Irsen, Elisabeth Soergel, Avishai Ofan, A. Hoffmann, Hassaram Bakhru, A Sehrbrock, Martin Lilienblum, Richard M. Osgood, Sasha Bakhru |
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| Rok vydání: | 2011 |
| Předmět: |
Microscope
Materials science business.industry Scanning electron microscope Mechanical Engineering Lithium niobate chemistry.chemical_element Bioengineering General Chemistry Focused ion beam Ferroelectricity law.invention chemistry.chemical_compound Optics Piezoresponse force microscopy chemistry Mechanics of Materials law Microscopy Optoelectronics General Materials Science Lithium Electrical and Electronic Engineering business |
| Zdroj: | Nanotechnology |
| Popis: | Large-area ferroelectric nanodomain patterns, which are desirable for nonlinear optical applications, were generated in previously He-implanted lithium niobate crystals by applying voltage pulses to the tip of a scanning force microscope. The individual nanodomains were found to be of uniform size, which depended only on the inter-domain spacing and the pulse amplitude. We explain this behavior by the electrostatic repulsion of poling-induced buried charges between adjacent domains. The domain patterns were imaged by piezoresponse force microscopy and investigated by domain-selective etching in conjunction with focused ion beam etching followed by scanning electron microscopy imaging. In order to optimize the He-irradiation parameters for easy and reliable nanodomain patterning a series of samples subjected to various irradiation fluences and energies was prepared. The different samples were characterized by investigating nanodomains generated with a wide range of pulse parameters (amplitude and duration). In addition, these experiments clarified the physical mechanism behind the facile poling measured in He-irradiated lithium niobate crystals: the damage caused by the energy loss that takes place via electronic excitations appears to act to stabilize the domains, whereas the nuclear-collision damage degrades the crystal quality, and thus impedes reliable nanodomain generation. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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