Etching-enhanced growth of indentation crack in barium titanate single crystal

The effect of etching on an unloaded indentation crack in a poled BaTiO3 single crystal whose poling direction is lying in or normal to the indentation plane, has been investigated. The result showed that for the sample whose poling direction was lying in the indentation plane, the indentation cracks and 90° domain switching zones surrounded by two pairs of indentation cracks grew gradually during etching using HCl + HF aqueous solution, and reached saturation after etching for 30 s, however, the effect of etching on the crack length and the size of the domain switching zone was very small for the sample whose poling direction was normal to the indentation plane. Etching-enhanced domain switching and crack propagating is due to adsorption-decreased surface energy.