Nanoscale ferroelectric switching behavior at charged domain boundaries studied by angle-resolved piezoresponse force microscopy

Abstract

We investigated the effect of charged domain boundaries (CDBs) on the coercive voltage (V-c) in polycrystalline Pb(Zr0.25Ti0.75)O-3 (PZT) thin films using angle-resolved piezoresponse force microscopy (AR-PFM). By using the AR-PFM technique, we could observe the detailed domain structure with various degrees of CDBs including neutral domain boundaries in the PZT thin films. We found that the V-c increases at CDBs induced by polarization discontinuities. We attribute the change in V-c to the built-in field created by uncompensated polarization charges at the CDBs in the PZT thin films. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics.