Shear effects in lateral piezoresponse force microscopy at 180${}^{\circ }$ ferroelectric domain walls

Abstract

In studies using piezoresponse force microscopy, we observe a non-zero lateral piezoresponse at 180${}^{\circ }$ domain walls in out-of-plane polarized, c-axis-oriented tetragonal ferroelectric Pb(Zr${}_{0.2}$Ti${}_{0.8}$)O${}_3$ epitaxial thin films. We attribute these observations to a shear strain effect linked to the sign change of the $d_{33}$ piezoelectric coefficient through the domain wall, in agreement with theoretical predictions. We show that in monoclinically distorted tetragonal BiFeO${}_3$ films, this effect is superimposed on the lateral piezoresponse due to actual in-plane polarization, and has to be taken into account in order to correctly interpret the ferroelectric domain configuration.

4 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Fractal dimension and size scaling of domains in thin films of multiferroic BiFeO3
• Domain wall roughness in epitaxial ferroelectric PbZr0.2Ti0.8O3 thin films
• Nanoscale piezoelectric response across a single antiparallel ferroelectric domain wall
• Combining half-metals and multiferroics into epitaxial heterostructures for spintronics
• Detection mechanism for ferroelectric domain boundaries with lateral force microscopy

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Conduction at domain walls in insulating Pb(Zr${}_{0.2}$Ti${}_{0.8}$)O${}_3$ thin films
• Thermal rounding of the depinning transition in ultrathin Pt/Co/Pt films
• Lateral piezoelectric response across ferroelectric domain walls in thin films
• Sol-Gel Derived Ferroelectric Nanoparticles Investigated by Piezoresponse Force Microscopy
• Lateral Signals in Piezoresponse Force Microscopy at Domain Boundaries of Ferroelectric Crystals