The influence of the dipolar field effect on the photochemical reactivity of Sr2Nb2O7 and BaTiO3 microcrystals

It has previously been shown that the dipolar field effect spatially localizes photochemical reaction products on the surfaces of macroscopic ferroelectric crystals. In this work, photochemical reactions that deposit insoluble products on the surface have been used to study the dipolar field effect in microcrystals of BaTiO3 and Sr2Nb2O7. In both cases, the patterns of reduced silver on the surface were consistent with the orientations of the ferroelectric domains within the samples. The results show that dipolar fields associated with the ferroelectric domains in small particles can separate photogenerated charge carriers and spatially localize reaction products.