In-Plane 90∘ Rotation of Lamellar Domains in PbTiO3 Grains Revealed by Piezoresponse Force Microscopy

Abstract

Nanoscale switching of the lamellar 90 • domains (a-a domains) of PbTiO 3 grains in the surface of sol-gel-derived PbTiO 3 /Pb(Zr 0.58 Ti 0.42 )O 3 /PbTiO 3 thin films is studied by three-dimensional piezoresponse force microscopy. It is demonstrated that the lamellar domain pattern in the PbTiO 3 grains can be rotated 90 • in the plane of film by the electric field at the tip. It is found that the rotation of lamellar domain pattern involves transverse growth of the existing embedded a-a domain nucleus, whose domain walls are perpendicular to the surrounding ones. During the transverse growth, the existing 90 • domains extend along length direction and penetrate into neighboring domain walls, while formation of new 90 • domain walls was mediated by the nanoscale 45 • tilted spike domains.

Contrast mechanisms for the detection of ferroelectric domains with scanning force microscopy

“…Only a few studies on other bulk crystals exhibiting a-and c-domains were reported ever since (Bi 4 Ti 3 O 12 [10,11], PbTiO 3 [12], SrBi 2 Ta 2 O 9 [13], PZN-PT [14], and PMN-PT [14,15]). After all there are also a few publications where simultaneous recording of the vertical and the lateral signals on thin films is reported (BiFeO 3 [16], LiNbO 3 [17], PbTiO 3 [18,19,20], and PZT [21,22]).…”

“…In case of samples with distinct topographic features this is relatively easy and was performed on polycrystalline particles of BiFeO 3 [23], LaBGeO 5 [20] or thin film capacitors with top electrodes [24]. But also for samples with no specific topography, images at different angles were recorded [9,13,16,19,20,23,24].…”