Electron Microscopic Investigation on Cleavage Surface of Ferroelectric Tri-Glycine Sulfate

Electron microscopic investigations utilizing a low angle shadow decoration technique have revealed the detail of cleavage surface of TGS on a crystallographic unit cell scale. Many elementary cleavage steps of one definite height are observed on the surface. The height just agrees with the crystallographic unit cell length along the b -axis. While the cleavage surface seems to be inclined with respect to the b -plane from macroscopic observations, the cleavage surface obtained by the present electron microscopic investigation is composed of the b -planes spaced at intervals of the unit cell length along the b -axis. The macroscopic inclination results from the formation of the elementary steps. The amount of the inclination depends on the density of the elementary steps.