Poling and structuring of ferroelectric domains form the basis for developingprospective applications using materials from the lithium-niobate (LN) family.Applications range from second harmonic generation to electro-optic modulatorsor surface acoustic wave devices. In the work presented here, hysteresismeasurements are used as a standard method to quantitatively determine thepoling properties of these ferroelectrics, including their spontaneous polarizationPs as well as their forward and reverse coercive fieldsE c,þ andE c,. Systematicmeasurements that depend on parameters such as the ramp rateR of the appliedpoling voltage and the waiting timet wait between domain inversions areinvestigated and compared between the congruent variants of LN, lithiumtantalate (LT), their magnesium-doped analogues, and stoichiometric LN. Forbulk magnesium-doped LN, for example, it is found that the resulting coercivefield strongly depends on the speed of the voltage ramp, with Ec values rangingfrom 11 to 21 kV mm1. These investigations are used as fundamental input forpoling ferroelectric lithium niobate-tantalate solids (LNT), a system that offers ahigh potential for tuning the material parameters beyond what is possible for LNor LT.RESEARCH ARTICLEwww.pss-a.comPhys. Status Solidi A 2024, 2300967 2300967 (1 of 10) © 2024 The Authors. physica status solidi (a) applications and materials sciencepublished by Wiley-VCH GmbH