AFM study of the microwave effect on hydrogen-containing ferroelectric triglycine sulfate

Nanoscale supramolecular structures and their transformations under exposure to microwaves in hydrogen-containing ferroelectric, i.e., triglycine sulfate (TGS), were studied by atomic-force microscopy. It was shown that prolonged (2–5 h) irradiation of TGS crystal at a frequency of 40 GHz results in changes in the cleavage surface, which can be interpreted as radiation-induced “annealing” of the crystal with simultaneous generation of new defects. An exposure mechanism based on the effects of commensurability of the time of flight of quasifree dipole particles (protons) with the high-frequency field’s period is proposed.