Polar nanodomains and local ferroelectric phenomena in relaxor lead lanthanum zirconate titanate ceramics

Journal Article · Mon May 16 04:00:00 EDT 2005 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1923756· OSTI ID:20702354

Shvartsman, V V; Kholkin, A L; Orlova, A; Kiselev, D; Bogomolov, A A; Sternberg, A ^[1]

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1. Department of Ceramics and Glass Engineering and Center for Research in Ceramic and Composite Materials (CICECO), University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro (Portugal)

Transparent Pb{sub 0.9125}La{sub 0.0975}(Zr{sub 0.65}Ti{sub 0.35}){sub 0.976}O{sub 3} ceramics (conventionally abbreviated as PLZT 9.75/65/35) is a typical relaxor characterized by the absence of the ferroelectric order at the macroscopic scale. In this letter, we report on the observation of complex polar structures on the surface of this material via piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM). The irregular polarization patterns are associated with the formation of a glassy state, where random electric fields destroy the long-range ferroelectric order. The measure of the disorder, the correlation length of {approx}50 nm, was directly deduced from the PFM images. Local poling of relaxor ceramics resulted in the formation of a stable micron-size domain that could be continuously switched under varying dc bias (local relaxor-ferroelectric phase transition). Fractal analysis was applied to analyze the origin of local order in PLZT.

• OSTI ID: 20702354
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 20 Vol. 86; ISSN APPLAB; ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPY
CERAMICS
CORRELATIONS
ELECTRIC FIELDS
FERROELECTRIC MATERIALS
FRACTALS
NANOSTRUCTURES
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
PLZT
POLARIZATION