Giant texturing effect in multiferroic MnWO4 polycrystals

Different methods of texturing polycrystalline materials have been developed over the 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 MnWO4 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 polycrystalline MnWO4. A quantitative measure of the texturing has been carried out by means of the 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.