A comparative study on the domain switching characteristics of near stoichiometric lithium niobate and lithium tantalate single crystals

For pure SLN and SLT crystals the coercive field measured from ferroelectric hysteresis loop was found to be independent of ramp rate. Decreased lithium concentration in pure SLN samples, the coercive field and internal field are strongly enhanced. NbLi antisites are the major contribution to the internal field. Coercive field depends strongly on the ramp rate in case of MgSLN and MgSLT samples, because of domain pinning. The coercive field is considerably reduced in Mg doped SLN and SLT compared to pure samples, indicating that the switching fields are strongly dependent on the nonstoichiometry of the crystals. The coercive field values were found to be constant under multiple cycling in case of Mg (1 mol%) doped SLN crystal. A strong correlation is found to exist between coercive field value and the Curie temperature.