Skip to content Skip to navigation
University of Warwick
  • Study
  • |
  • Research
  • |
  • Business
  • |
  • Alumni
  • |
  • News
  • |
  • About

University of Warwick
Publications service & WRAP

Highlight your research

  • WRAP
    • Home
    • Search WRAP
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse WRAP by Year
    • Browse WRAP by Subject
    • Browse WRAP by Department
    • Browse WRAP by Funder
    • Browse Theses by Department
  • Publications Service
    • Home
    • Search Publications Service
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse Publications service by Year
    • Browse Publications service by Subject
    • Browse Publications service by Department
    • Browse Publications service by Funder
  • Help & Advice
University of Warwick

The Library

  • Login
  • Admin

Reconsidering the origins of Forsbergh birefringence patterns

Tools
- Tools
+ Tools

Schilling, Alina, Kumar, A., McQuaid, R. G. P., Glazer, A. M. (Anthony Michael), Thomas, Pam A. and Gregg, J. M. (2016) Reconsidering the origins of Forsbergh birefringence patterns. Physical Review B (Condensed Matter and Materials Physics), 94 . pp. 1-6. 024109. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.94.024109

[img]
Preview
PDF
WRAP_PhysRevB.94.024109.pdf - Published Version - Requires a PDF viewer.

Download (2826Kb) | Preview
Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.94.024109

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

In 1949, Forsbergh, Jr. reported spontaneous spatial ordering in the birefringence patterns seen in flux-grown BaTiO3 crystals under the transmission polarized light microscope [Phys. Rev. 76, 1187 (1949)]. Stunningly regular square-net arrays were often only found within a finite temperature window and could be induced on both heating and cooling, suggesting genuine thermodynamic stability. At the time, Forsbergh rationalized the patterns to have resulted from the impingement of ferroelastic domains, creating a complex tessellation of variously shaped domain packets. However, no direct evidence for the intricate microstructural arrangement proposed by Forsbergh has subsequently been found. Moreover, there are no robust thermodynamic arguments to explain the finite region of thermal stability, its occurrence just below the Curie temperature, and the apparent increase in entropy associated with the loss of the Forsbergh pattern on cooling. Despite decades of research on ferroelectrics, this ordering phenomenon and its thermodynamic origin have hence remained a mystery. In this paper, we reexamine the microstructure of flux-grown BaTiO3 crystals, which show Forsbergh birefringence patterns. Given an absence of any obvious arrays of domain polyhedra or even regular shapes of domain packets, we suggest an alternative origin for the Forsbergh pattern in which sheets of orthogonally oriented ferroelastic stripe domains simply overlay one another. We show explicitly that the Forsbergh birefringence pattern occurs if the periodicity of the stripe domains is above a critical value. Moreover, by considering well-established semiempirical models, we show that the significant domain coarsening needed to generate the Forsbergh birefringence is fully expected in a finite window below the Curie temperature. We hence present a much more straightforward rationalization of the Forsbergh pattern than that originally proposed in which exotic thermodynamic arguments are unnecessary.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: Q Science > QC Physics
Divisions: Faculty of Science > Physics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Refraction, Double
Journal or Publication Title: Physical Review B (Condensed Matter and Materials Physics)
Publisher: American Physical Society
ISSN: 1098-0121
Official Date: 12 July 2016
Dates:
DateEvent
12 July 2016Published
27 April 2016Accepted
19 February 2016Submitted
Volume: 94
Number of Pages: 6
Page Range: pp. 1-6
Article Number: 024109
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.94.024109
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: Published
Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
Grant number: EP/F004869/1 (EPSRC), EP/N018389/1 (EPSRC)

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics

twitter

Email us: wrap@warwick.ac.uk
Contact Details
About Us