research papers
Single crystals of caesium titanyl arsenate (CTA, CsTiOAsO4), with space group Pna21 and isomorphous with potassium titanyl phosphate (KTP, KTiOPO4), have been studied using high-resolution synchrotron X-rays. During the experiments, an electric field was applied along the polar axis [001]. Single-crystal plates, between 300 and 450 μm thick along [001], were polarized by a variable square wave of frequency 20 Hz alternately applied to each side of the plate. A field-induced splitting of the + /− peaks for reflections hkl with l ≠ 0 was observed. This splitting provides information about the coercive field, polarizability and the piezoelectric strain tensor. Two of the piezoelectric coefficients of CTA could be estimated as d31 ≃ 1 and d33 ≃ 27 pm V−1. Whereas the coercive fields were estimated at 2300 V mm−1, the field necessary to reverse the domains just once in CTA was found to be either 560 or 1550 V mm−1, depending on the polarity of the reversed domain in relation to the polarity of the nonswitched part of the crystal.