AbstractThe role of x-ray diffraction in characterising defects in crystals is reviewed briefly. It is most sensitive to the presence of plane defects which destroy the long-range order. The same argument is shown to apply to line defects in surface structures. Two recent glancing incidence x-ray diffraction experiments provide contrasting examples: randomly distributed steps are found in the Au(110) reconstructed surface, while regular arrays of domain walls modify certain phases of krypton monolayers physisorbed on graphite substrates.
Role of flexoelectric coupling in polarization rotations at the a-c domain walls in ferroelectric perovskites