The screening effects influence on the nano-domain tailoring in ferroelectrics-semiconductors

Abstract

We calculate the realistic sizes of nano-domains recorded by the electric field of atomic force microscope tip in BaTiO3 and LiNbO3 ferroelectric-semiconductors in contrast to the over-estimated ones obtained in the previous works. We modified the existing models of domain formation allowing for the Debye screening, recharging of sluggish surface screening layers caused by emission current between the tip apex and the domain butt surface and the redistribution of domain depolarization field induced by the charged tip apex. We have shown that the depolarization field energy of the domain butt, Debye screening effects and field emission at high voltages lead to the essential decrease of the equilibrium domain sizes. We obtained, that the domain length and radius do not decrease continuously with voltage decrease: the domain appears with non-zero length and radius at definite critical voltage. Such "threshold" domain formation is similar to the first order phase transition and correlates with recent theoretical and experimental investigations.

20 pages, 4 figures, new references are added, content is changed, sent to Physica Status Solidi

References in corpus (10)

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• A Decade of Piezoresponse Force Microscopy: Progress, Challenges and Opportunities
• Piezoresponse Force Spectroscopy of Ferroelectric Materials
• Domain Nucleation and Hysteresis Loop Shape in Piezoresponse Force Spectroscopy
• Landau-Ginzburg-Devonshire theory for electromechanical hysteresis loop formation in piezoresponse force microscopy of thin films
• Minimum domain size and stability in carbon nanotube-ferroelectric devices
• Polarization Screening Effect on Local Polarization Switching Mechanism and Hysteresis Loop Measurements in Piezoresponse Force Microscopy