Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) as a method to characterize the ferroelectric polarization domains in magnesium-doped lithium niobate crystals is demonstrated. Preliminary measurements on a test sample show a clearly identifiable relative shift in the energy of the Auger oxygen KLL transition peak between poled (inverted) and un-poled domains. Auger electrons detected from the negative polarization domains (-Z) have a higher energy than those from the positive domains indicating a lower ionization energy at the -Z domain surface. The degree of electron energy separation between the −Z and +Z domains was found to be dependent on proximity to the domain boundary and was potentially diminished by the accumulated charge under the incident primary beam. Polarization domain resolution is demonstrated on both the micron and millimeter scale, suggesting potential applicability of this technique to surface investigation and domain structure characterization of nonlinear optical devices such as periodically poled lithium niobate.

中文翻译：

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选择性极化 MgO:LiNbO3 表面铁电畴分化的俄歇电子能谱

俄歇电子能谱 (AES) 作为一种表征镁掺杂铌酸锂晶体中铁电极化域的方法被证明。对测试样品的初步测量显示，极化（倒置）和非极化域之间的俄歇氧 KLL 跃迁峰的能量存在明显可识别的相对偏移。从负极化域 (-Z) 检测到的俄歇电子具有比来自正域的更高的能量，表明 -Z 域表面的电离能较低。发现 -Z 和 +Z 域之间的电子能量分离程度取决于与域边界的接近程度，并且可能会因入射主光束下的累积电荷而减少。偏振域分辨率在微米和毫米尺度上都得到了证明，