Properties of ferroelectric glycine phosphite single crystals

Abstract

The optically transparent single crystals of Glycine Phosphite (GPI) doped with metals, rare earths, dyes and amino acid were grown by both solvent evaporation and temperature lowering techniques. Concentration of dopants was chosen depending on the category of dopants and quality of crystallization during the growth process. Incorporation of dopants was identified using ESR, AAS, ICP, XRF and UV-Visible spectral analyses. Single crystal XRD was carried out to determine the lattice parameters and to analyze the structural morphology of GPI with dopants. Crystalline perfection of crystals was determined by HRXRD analysis by means of FWHM values. Ferroelectric transition temperature was identified by dielectric and DSC measurements. Piezoelectric charge coefficient d33 and Hysteresis (P-E) loop was measured for crystals. Microhardness measurement was carried out for understanding the mechanical stability of the crystals, the mechanical properties such as elastic stiffness constant ‘C11’, yield strength ‘σy’ were calculated from hardness value. Meyer’s index number was in the range of 1.6 to 2 for all the crystals. This indicates that the grown crystals are relatively soft materials.