Two-Dimensional Dissolution of Magnetoplumbite

Abstract

Surface microtopographic study was made on the flux-grown magnetoplumbite crystals. Many interlaced growth spirals with hexagonal pits at the center were found on the basal faces (0001). Several hexagonal pits which were not situated at the spiral center were seen randomly scattered on the same basal faces. These features show that the crystals were slightly etched by its own flux before they were taken out from the crucible. A detailed analysis of interlacing spirals was made using phase-contrast microscopy and multiple-beam interferometry. It turned out that they were indeed the dissolution interlacing patterns resulted from the inversion of the relative order of the step velocity in the case of growth and the dissolution.