Nanoscale ferroelectric switching behavior at charged domain boundaries studied by angle-resolved piezoresponse force microscopy.

We investigated the effect of charged domain boundaries (CDBs) on the coercive voltage (Vc) in polycrystalline Pb(Zr0.25Ti0.75)O3 (PZT) thin films using angle-resolved piezoresponse force microscopy (AR-PFM). By using the AR-PFM technique, we could observe the detailed domain structure with various degrees of CDBs including neutral domain boundaries in the PZT thin films. We found that the Vc increases at CDBs induced by polarization discontinuities. We attribute the change in Vc to the built-in field created by uncompensated polarization charges at the CDBs in the PZT thin films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]