The static domain structure of ferroic Fe3B7O13I, abbreviated in what follows as Fe-I, synthetic boracite crystals has been analysed by polarised-light microscopy (PLM) [1.2] and by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) [3,4] at room temperature. As for most boracites, Fe-I possess dielectric, elastic, magnetic and optical properties of unusual interest. Upon cooling, Fe-I botacite shows a sequence of structural phase transitions from the cubic 43m1´to the orthorhombic mm21´, the monoclinic m1´and the trigonal 3m1´phases [5] Fe-I boracite single crystals were grown by the chemical-vapour transport technique [6]. At room temperature, the Fe-I crystals present an orthorhombic domain structure which consists of six fully ferroelectric/fully ferroelastic domains are totally coupled [5]. The usefulness and possibilities of combining PLM and FE-SEM for the studying and visualizing the domain structure of ferroic boracites will be shown
The authors would like to thank Coordinacióbn General Académica and Cucei from Universidad de Guadalajara for financial support.
References
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