Electron backscatter diffraction as a domain analysis technique in BiFeO3-PbTiO3 single crystals

xBiFeO
₃
-(1-x)PbTiO
₃
single crystals were grown via a flux method for a range of compositions. Presented here is a study of the domain configuration in the 0.5BiFeO
₃
-0.5PbTiO
₃
composition using electron backscatter diffraction to demonstrate the ability of the technique to map ferroelastic domain structures at the micron and submicron scale. The micron-scale domains exhibit an angle of approximately 85deg between each variant, indicative of a ferroelastic domain wall in a tetragonal system with a spontaneous strain, c/a - 1 of 0.10, in excellent agreement with the lattice parameters derived from X-ray diffraction. Contrast seen in forescatter images is attributed to variations in the direction of the electrical polarization vector, providing images of ferroelectric domain patterns.