Ar. Lim et al., Ferroelastic domain switching behaviour of [N(CH3)(4)](2)CUCl4 and [N(CH3)(4)](2)ZnCl4 single crystals studied by external stress, J PHYS JPN, 70(7), 2001, pp. 1937-1941
We studied the temperature dependence of the stress-strain hysteresis in [N
(CH3)(4)](2)CuCl4 and [N(CH3)(4)](2)ZnCl4 single crystals grown by the slow
evaporation method. From the obtained results, we determined that [N(CH3)(
4)](2)CuCl4 and [N(CH3)(4)](2)ZnCl4 single crystals have ferroelastic chara
cteristics in phase IV and III, and phase V and IV, respectively. Also, the
ferroelastic domain switching stress due to saturation effect is approxima
tely 0.9 MPa in [N(CH3)(4)](2)CuCl4 and 0.4 MPa in [N(CH3)(4)](2)ZnCl4 crys
tals. In order words, the ferroelastic phase transition due to external mec
hanical stress applied to these crystals causes a transformation from the t
win-domain state to the single-domain state.