Direct observation of fatigue in epitaxially grown Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ thin films using second harmonic piezoresponse force microscopy

Journal Article · Tue Aug 02 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3619839· OSTI ID:1042797

Murari, Nishit M. ^[1]; Hong, Seungbum ^[2]; Lee, Ho Nyung ^[3]; Katiyar, Ram S. ^[4]

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1. Univ. of Puerto Rico, San Juan (Puerto Rico); Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States)
2. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States)
3. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
4. Univ. of Puerto Rico, San Juan (Puerto Rico)

In this study, we present a direct observation of fatigue phenomena in epitaxially grown Pb(Zr_0.2Ti_0.8)O₃(PZT)thin films using second harmonic piezoresponse force microscopy (SH-PFM). We observed strong correlation between the SH-PFM amplitude and phase signals with the remnant piezoresponse at different switching cycles. The SH-PFM results indicate that the average fraction of switchable domains decreases globally and the phase delays of polarization switching differ locally. In addition, we found that the fatigue developed uniformly over the whole area without developing region-by-region suppression of switchable polarization as in polycrystalline PZTthin films.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1042797
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 99, Issue 11; ISSN 0003-6951
• Publisher: American Institute of Physics (AIP)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
polarization
atomic force microscopy
ferroelectric thin films
ferroelectric switching
epitaxy