Characterization of nano formation and growth in a LiNbO₃ glass

Abstract

The growth mechanism of nanosized crystal grains of LiNbO₃ with changing temperature and time has been studied. The nanograin LiNbO₃ crystal is initially obtained by crystallizing the pure LiNbO₃ glass that is formed using a polymeric complex method. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy are used to measure the grain sizes. Our study shows that, when the temperature linearly changes from 650 to 1000 °C, the nanograins linearly grow from about 55 nm to 100 nm with increasing temperature. At a fixed temperature of 700 °C, the nanograins also grow linearly within a delay time of 180 min. Meanwhile, at higher fixed temperatures of 800 and 900 °C, the linear dependence of grain growth occurs in the early stage; at a later time, the growth stops and the size saturates. Because nanograins with various sizes are required in many fields, the growth mechanism of nanograins with a linear growth in time and temperature and the size saturation effect in this study are expected to provide valuable information for applications.