Mechanical stress-induced switching kinetics of ferroelectric thin films at the nanoscale

A Alsubaie; P Sharma; G Liu; V Nagarajan; J Seidel

doi:10.1088/1361-6528/aa536d

Mechanical stress-induced switching kinetics of ferroelectric thin films at the nanoscale

Nanotechnology. 2017 Feb 17;28(7):075709. doi: 10.1088/1361-6528/aa536d. Epub 2016 Dec 13.

Authors

A Alsubaie¹, P Sharma, G Liu, V Nagarajan, J Seidel

Affiliation

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia. School of Physics, Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia.

PMID: 27959325
DOI: 10.1088/1361-6528/aa536d

Abstract

We investigate ferroelectric domain structure and piezoelectric response under variable mechanical compressive stress in Pb(Zr_0.2TiO_0.8)O₃ (PZT) thin films using high-resolution piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) and an in situ sample bending stage. Measurements reveal a drastic change in the ferroelectric domain structure which is presented along with details of the mediating switching process involving domain wall motion, nucleation, and domain wall roughening under an applied external mechanical stimulus. Furthermore, local PFM hysteresis loops reveal significant changes in the observed coercive biases under applied stress. The PFM hysteresis loops become strongly imprinted under increasing applied compressive stress.