Strong, large distance impurity dipole interaction in KNbO₃ single crystals

Abstract

It is found that the unrelaxed impurity dipoles can arrange themselves linearly in the structure joining each other end-to-end in pseudocubic [110] direction at the tetragonal to the orthorhombic phase transition. It is shown that this alignment precedes the domain formation at the phase transition, which implies quick movements of the dipoles in the structure, and a strong dipolar interaction. The experiments with the application of dc fields to the crystals showed that the dipolar interaction becomes stronger with the field. The dipoles can see each other across the existing domain walls implying the large distance nature of the interaction. The observation of impurity clusters arranged in pseudocubic [110] direction confirmed the large distance nature of the interaction. It is concluded that this strong, large distance interaction is very interesting in as much as such an interaction of dipoles forms the basis of ferroelectricity.