Giant texturing effect in multiferroic MnWO$_4$ polycrystals

TL;DR

This study demonstrates a significant texturing effect in polycrystalline MnWO$_4$ using particle morphology, enabling anisotropic property exploration without single crystal growth, through detailed diffraction and microscopic analysis.

Contribution

The paper introduces a particle morphology-assisted texturing method for MnWO$_4$, revealing giant texturing effects and anisotropic properties in polycrystals.

Findings

Giant texturing effect observed in MnWO$_4$ powders.

Anisotropic magnetic and dielectric properties developed.

Plate-like particles formed due to easy cleavage of large grains.

Abstract

Different methods of texturing polycrystalline materials are developed over years to use/probe anisotropic material properties with relative ease, where complicated and expensive single crystal growth processes could be avoided. In this paper, particle morphology assisted texturing in multiferroic MnWO$_4$ has been discussed. Detailed powder x-ray diffraction vis-a-vis scanning electron microscopic studies on differently annealed and processed samples have been employed to probe the giant texturing effect in powdered MnWO$_4$. A quantitative measure of the texturing has been carried out by means of Rietveld analysis technique. Qualitative presentation of magnetic and dielectric data on textured pellet demonstrated the development of clear anisotropic physical properties in polycrystalline pellets. Finally, we established that the highly anisotropic plate like particles are formed due to easy cleavage of the significantly large crystalline grains.