METHOD FOR PRODUCING PIEZOELECTRIC MONOCRYSTALS HAVING A POLYDOMAIN STRUCTURE FOR ACCURATE POSITIONING DEVICES

摘要

The invention relates to producing ferroelectric monocrystals having a shaped domain structure and can be used for designing and operating accurate positioning devices, in particular probing microscopes and for calibrating optical systems. The inventive method for producing piezoelectric monocrystals having a polydomain structure for the accurate positioning devices consists in forming a blank from ferroelectric monocrystals in which only 180° domain boundaries can be formed. At least two faces of said blank are arrange in parallel direction to each other. The perpendiculars to said parallel faces do not coincide with the direction of a spontaneous polarisation axis. Afterwards, said blank is moved through a heating field of a furnace from the area thereof where temperature is higher than the Curie temperature to the area where a temperature is lower than the Curie temperature. Simultaneously, an alternating sign-variable electric field is applied to the parallel faces of the blank. The volume of the entire blank volume is cooled, a predetermined domain structure being formed therein. The domain structure sizes are defined by the speed of the blank motion and by the polarity reversal period of the electric field applied thereto. Afterwards, the blank is divided into plates whose two faces are parallel to the domain boundaries and which comprise the equal numbers of the opposite polarity domains.