Surface potential and sem investigations of locally polarized ferroelectric PZT films

Abstract

The materials investigated in this paper are PZT-thick-films on polycrystalline Al₂O₃-substrates metallized with a Pt-electrode. Measurements of the surface potential of locally polarized films with an electrostatic voltmeter with a lateral resolution of 0.5 mm are presented. The influence of the poling properties of the film as well as the contrast enhancement due to corona charging and temperature variation are discussed. The polarization of fine structures with a characteristic length down to 10 μm was done with an electron microscope in the lithographic mode. The surface potential contrast produced by this electron beam polarization was visualized in the SEM.