Characterization of periodically poled ferroelectric crystals using scanning probe microscopy

Summary form only given. Although periodically poled (PP) ferroelectric crystals are increasingly used as frequency converters in lasers and optical parametric oscillators (OPO), previously there has been no adequate method to check the quality of the poling in a nondestructive way at high resolution. Scanning probe microscopy (SPM), however, has provided ever more applications for studying not only the topology of materials but also their functional properties. One of the great advantages of this technique over other is the very high resolution of 1 nm obtained. In the work, SPM was used to measure surface oscillations due to the inverse piezoelectric effect in order to study the polarity and domain boundaries of domains in PP:KTP and PP:LiNbO/sub 3/.