Compositional and structural study of a (K0.5Na0.5)NbO3 single crystal prepared by solid state crystal growth.

In this work we investigated the chemical composition and structure of (K0.5Na0.5)NbO3 (KNN) single crystals grown by the solid state crystal growth method. The optical, scanning, and transmission electron microscopies were employed for the analysis of the chemical homogeneity and domain structure of the KNN crystal. No compositional inhomogeneities within experimental error were encountered in the KNN single crystals. The domain structure of the KNN single crystal, with a monoclinic unit cell, is composed of large 90 degrees domains of up to 100 microm width, which further consist of smaller 180 degrees domains with widths from 50 to 300 nm.