Correlation between piezoresponse nonlinearity and hysteresis in ferroelectric crystals at nanoscale

Journal Article · Wed Apr 27 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4947533· OSTI ID:1256822

Kalinin, Sergei V. ^[1]; Jesse, Stephen ^[1]; Yang, Yaodong ^[2]; Li, Linglong ^[3]; Liu, Zhengchun ^[4]; Vasudevan, Rama K. ^[1]

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1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
2. Xi'an Jiaotong Univ., Xi'an (China)
3. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Xi'an Jiaotong Univ., Xi'an (China)
4. Univ. Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona (Spain)

Here, the nonlinear response of a ferroic to external fields has been studied for decades, garnering interest for both understanding fundamental physics, as well as technological applications such as memory devices. Yet, the behavior of ferroelectrics at mesoscopic regimes remains poorly understood, and the scale limits of theories developed for macroscopic regimes are not well tested experimentally. Here, we test the link between piezo-nonlinearity and local piezoelectric strain hysteresis, via AC-field dependent measurements in conjunction with first order reversal curve (FORC) measurements on (K,Na)NbO₃ crystals with band-excitation piezoelectric force microscopy. The correlation coefficient between nonlinearity amplitude and the FORC of the polarization switching shows a clear decrease in correlation with increasing AC bias, suggesting the impact of domain wall clamping on the DC measurement case. Further, correlation of polynomial fitting terms from the nonlinear measurements with the hysteresis loop area reveals that the largest correlations are reserved for the quadratic terms, which is expected for irreversible domain wall motion contributions that impact both piezoelectric behavior as well as minor loop formation. These confirm the link between local piezoelectric nonlinearity, domain wall motion and minor loop formation, and suggest that existing theories (such as Preisach) are applicable at these length scales, with associated implications for future nanoscale devices.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1256822
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1420600
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 108, Issue 17; ISSN 0003-6951
• Publisher: American Institute of Physics (AIP)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
electrical hysteresis
polarization
domain walls
electric measurements
atomic force microscopy