A study was made of the heat treatment behaviour of lattice defects in Verneuil-grown crystals. The heat treatment was carried out in atmospheric air at 1500C for 240h. The samples, before and after heat treatment, were investigated by means of X-ray topography. The observations showed that rearrangement of the dislocations, and strain relaxation of the crystal, were greatly affected by the heat treatment. The generation of new defects, such as slip bands and O-vacancy clusters was also observed.

X-Ray Topographic Observation of Lattice Defects in Heat-Treated SrTiO3 Crystals. J.Yoshimura, J.Yamanaka, T.Iwamoto, S.Kimura: Materials Transactions, 2000, 41[5], 559-62