We report the results of synchrotron Bragg Coherent X-ray Diffraction Imaging (BCDI) experiments to investigate domain formation in a micron-sized magnetite crystal undergoing the Verwey transition at low temperature. A strong splitting of the measured 311 Bragg reflection was observed in the low-temperature phase, indicating the formation of domains. BCDI revealed pronounced strain distributions, characterized by a clear layered stripe domain structure in real-space. Stripes were seen only along the [001] crystallographic direction, normal to the substrate surface direction, breaking the symmetry of the cubic high-temperature phase. It is argued that other domain directions were suppressed by the sample mounting orientation. More surprisingly, only a single domain orientation was observed, suggesting an additional symmetry-breaking influence originating from the shape of the crystal.
@article{arxiv.2503.10417,
title = {Symmetry Breaking during Low-Temperature Domain Formation in Micron-sized Magnetite Crystals},
author = {Yue Dong and David Yang and Jialun Liu and Aly Abdeldaim and Wei Wang and Ian Robinson},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.10417},
year = {2025}
}