Nanoscale imaging of domain dynamics and retention in ferroelectric thin films

Publication Type:

Journal Article

Authors:

A. Gruverman; H. Tokumoto; A.S. Prakash; S. Aggarwal; B. Yang; M. Wuttig; Ramamoorthy Ramesh; O. Auciello; T. Venkatesan

Source:

Applied Physics Letters, American Institute of Physics Inc., Volume 71, Number 24, p.3492-3494 (1997)

Keywords:

atomic force microscopy, Dielectric films, Ferroelectric materials, Imaging techniques, Polarization, Polarization reversal, Polycrystalline materials, Random walk process

Abstract:

We report results on the direct observation of the microscopic origins of backswitching in ferroelectric thin films. The piezoelectric response generated in the film by a biased atomic force microscope tip was used to obtain static and dynamic piezoelectric images of individual grains in a polycrystalline material. We demonstrate that polarization reversal occurs under no external field (i.e., loss of remanent polarization) via a dispersive continuous-time random walk process, identified by a stretched exponential decay of the remanent polarization. © 1997 American Institute of Physics.

Notes:

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