The relationship between ferroelectric domain pattern and properties of PLT21 ceramics

The light passing through a ferroelectric crystal tends to split into several separate beams due to refraction and reflection at the domain walls. This interaction of light with ferroelectric domains becomes one of the most important features of modern optoelectronic and nonlinear optics materials. Recently, lanthanum modified lead titanate, Pb_(1-x)La_xTiO₃, (PLT) has become popular because it possesses interesting properties such as a lower Curie temperature, a lower coercive field, and smaller remanent polarizations than PZT and has great potential for nonlinear optical and electro optical applications. In this work, we propose a simple model taking into account the optical transmission and rearrangement of the ferroelectrics domains structure on the PLT21 ceramic in temperature function. The variation of dielectrical and optical measurements in function of temperature were observed and correlated with the optical visualization of ferroelectric domains.