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Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin films were prepared by a sol–gel process on platinized Si substrate. Their microstructure and surface morphology were characterized by XRD and Scanninn Force Microscopy. Phase transformation of the prepared PZT films from pyrochlore to ferroelectric was observed by XRD and PFM (piezoresponse force microscopy), respectively. Self-assembling nano-structured ferroelectric phases are fabricated by solution deposition technique followed by the controlling kinetics of the transformation. Complex structures of ferroelectric domains in the isolated ferroelectric phases were found in the furnace annealed PZT films in the temperature range of 400–500°C. Single ferroelectric domain structure in the isolated ferroelectric phases could be found in thinner PZT films and used to study the size effect of laterally confined ferroelectric domains. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We report visualization of three-dimensional domain structures in ferroelectric PbTiO3 (PTO) nanotubes (NTs) using piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM). The domain distributions of the x, y, and z-axes in PTO NTs were separately measured out-of and in-planes at angles of 0° and 90° by vertical and lateral PFM. The separately obtained PFM images were combined to reconstruct the complex domain structures based on some basic assumptions and finite element modeling. The cross-sectional domain configurations of the PTO NTs were visualized by the proposed approach. The results can provide insight into complex domain configurations of ferroelectric nanostructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]