Local Study of Polarization Reversal Kinetics in Ferroelectric Crystals Using Scanning Probe Microscopy

摘要

Visualization of as-grown domain patterns and local polarization reversal were carried out in ferroelectric single crystals Pb_5Ge_3O_(11) and LiNbO_3 using scanning probe microscopy. The piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) was used for domain imaging. The problem of PFM background signal smearing the domain contrast was solved by special mathematical treatment resulting in clear PFM images. This analysis was applied for extracting the field dependence of the size of domains produced by local polarization reversal in Pb_5Ge_3O_(11). The strong effect of abnormal polarization reversal resulting in appearance of the domains with polarization anti-parallel to locally applied field was demonstrated in LiNbO_3.