Ferroelectric thin films have been intensively studied at the nanometre scale due to the application in many fields, such as non-volatile memories. Enhanced piezo-response force microscopy (E-PFM) was used to investigate the evolution of ferroelectric and ferroelastic nanodomains in a polycrystalline thin film of the simple multi-ferroic PbZr0.3Ti0.7O3 (PZT). By applying a d.c. voltage between the atomic force microscopy (AFM) tip and the bottom substrate of the sample, we created an electric field to switch the domain orientation. Reversible switching of both ferroelectric and ferroelastic domains towards particular directions with predominantly (111) domain orientations are observed. We also showed that along with the ferroelectric/ferroelastic domain switch, there are defects that also switch. Finally, we proposed the possible explanation of this controllable defect in terms of flexoelectricity and defect pinning.
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机译：由于在许多领域中的应用，例如在非易失性存储器中，铁电薄膜已经在纳米尺度上进行了深入的研究。用增强的压电响应力显微镜（E-PFM）研究了简单的多铁性PbZr 0.3 Ti 0.7 O 3 （PZT）。通过应用直流电在原子力显微镜（AFM）尖端和样品底部衬底之间的电压下，我们创建了一个电场来切换畴的方向。观察到铁电和铁弹性畴都朝着具有主要（111）畴取向的特定方向可逆转换。我们还表明，与铁电/铁弹性域切换一起，还有一些缺陷也会切换。最后，我们从柔性电流和缺陷钉扎的角度提出了这种可控缺陷的可能解释。
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