DOI: 10.1063/1.1977183. Nanoscale polarization relaxation in a polycrystalline ferroelectric thin film: Role of local environments

Nanoscale polarization relaxation in a polycrystalline ferroelectric thin film: Role of local environments

10.1063/1.1977183

Crossref journal-article

AIP Publishing

Applied Physics Letters (317)

Abstract

In this letter, we report on the study of nanoscale polarization relaxation phenomena in polycrystalline PbZr0.4Ti0.6O3 films. Piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) images of the as-grown sample reveal grains with a range of contrast, from fully white to gray to fully black. It is shown that this local change in the contrast (magnitude) of the piezoresponse from grain to grain can be attributed to the crystallographic orientation within each grain. PFM-based relaxation experiments show that the rate of relaxation is different for each grain, furthermore it is strongly dependent on the tilt of individual crystallographic orientation with respect to the polar axis. Strongly tilted away nonpolar axis grains show a much stronger decay of the polarization compared to polar axis-oriented grains. Therefore, for an ensemble of grains under a common top electrode, the relaxation events would first take place in grains, which are nonpolar axis oriented.

Bibliography

Nagarajan, V., Aggarwal, S., Gruverman, A., Ramesh, R., & Waser, R. (2005). Nanoscale polarization relaxation in a polycrystalline ferroelectric thin film: Role of local environments. Applied Physics Letters, 86(26).

Authors 5

V. Nagarajan (first)
S. Aggarwal (additional)
A. Gruverman (additional)
R. Ramesh (additional)
R. Waser (additional)

References 30 Referenced 28

{'volume-title': 'Nanoscale Characterisation of Ferroelectric Materials', 'year': '2004', 'key': '2023080107350301800_c1'} / Nanoscale Characterisation of Ferroelectric Materials (2004)
{'volume-title': 'Ferroelectric Random Access Memories: Fundamentals and Applications', 'year': '2004', 'key': '2023080107350301800_c2'} / Ferroelectric Random Access Memories: Fundamentals and Applications (2004)
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Dates

Type	When
Created	20 years, 1 month ago (July 7, 2005, 8:33 p.m.)
Deposited	2 years, 1 month ago (Aug. 1, 2023, 3:35 a.m.)
Indexed	1 month ago (July 30, 2025, 6:45 a.m.)
Issued	20 years, 2 months ago (June 24, 2005)
Published	20 years, 2 months ago (June 24, 2005)
Published Online	20 years, 2 months ago (June 24, 2005)
Published Print	20 years, 2 months ago (June 27, 2005)

Funders 0

None

BibTeX

@article{Nagarajan_2005, title={Nanoscale polarization relaxation in a polycrystalline ferroelectric thin film: Role of local environments}, volume={86}, ISSN={1077-3118}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1977183}, DOI={10.1063/1.1977183}, number={26}, journal={Applied Physics Letters}, publisher={AIP Publishing}, author={Nagarajan, V. and Aggarwal, S. and Gruverman, A. and Ramesh, R. and Waser, R.}, year={2005}, month=jun }

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