3D imaging of domains and domain wall motion in uniaxial ferroelectrics

We propose to investigate the characteristics and dynamics of 180° ferroelectric domains in the uniaxial ferroelectric material BaMgF4 by Dark-Field X-ray Microscopy (DFXM). Our approach is to exploit the Friedel-pair contrast to obtain 3D images of these domains and study the strain fields to indirectly visualize polarization gradients near the domain walls. We thereby expect to better understand the mechanisms behind effects like domain wall pinning, incomplete poling and spontaneous back-switching in BaMgF4 that are detrimental in the field of nonlinear optics based on periodic poling.