Formation of the quasi-regular stripe nanodomain structures in lithium tantalate by scanning laser heating

Abstract

The domain structure formation in the congruent lithium tantalate single crystals after IR laser irradiation by linear scanning of Z + polar surface has been studied. Two types of domain structures have been revealed experimentally: self-similar structure and quasi-regular stripe structure. The statistical processing has shown that the increase in the scanning velocity leads to increase in the area with stripe domain structure and to decrease in the average domain period. At the maximum scanning velocity 4.8 m/s, the quasi regular domain stripe structure with average period 0.8 μm has been obtained over the 70% of the switched area.