Scattering properties of ferroelectric domain walls

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Abstract
Ferroelectric domain walls have recently been considered as candidates for the occurrence of non-linear (soliton) excitations and roughening transitions. By means of X-ray or neutron scattering experiments, the domain walls may be observed directly and their width may be measured. The occurrence of a roughening transition would be observable by these techniques, and the roughening mechanism is suggested as an explanation of existing experimental results for Pb5Ge3O11. A neutron scattering study of the domain walls in deuterated KH2PO4 is described. The domain walls in this system are shown to have a width of around two unit cells. This result implies that the continuum approximation used to describe nonlinear excitations in systems with domain walls is not applicable to KH2PO4, and quite probably to many other systems.

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