Influence of the inhomogeneous field at the tip on quantitative piezoresponse force microscopy

Abstract

Ferroelectric domain imaging with piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) relies on the converse piezoelectric effect: a voltage applied to the sample leads to mechanical deformations. In case of PFM one electrode is realized by the tip, therefore generating a strongly inhomogeneous electric field distribution inside the sample which reaches values up to $10^8$V/m directly underneath the apex of the tip. Although often assumed, this high electric field does not lead to an enhancement of the piezoelectric deformation of the sample. On the contrary, internal clamping of the material reduces the observed deformation compared to the theoretically expected value which depends only on the voltage thus being independent of the exact field distribution.

References in corpus (2)

• Nanoscale piezoelectric response across a single antiparallel ferroelectric domain wall
• Detection mechanism for ferroelectric domain boundaries with lateral force microscopy

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