Microscopic Polarization Retention Properties of Ferroelectric Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ Thin Films

Microscopic retention properties have been studied in detail. Domain growth and stability of ferroelectric Pb(Zr,Ti)O ₃ thin films were investigated with electrostatic force microscope to understand microscopic polarization retention loss mechanism in polycrystalline and epitaxial Pb(Zr,Ti)O ₃ thin films. Growth of domains and their relaxation behaviors were investigated and compared. The larger domains were the more stable than the smaller ones. The decay behavior of domain size could be fitted to a simple exponential function. The stretched exponential decay of the averaged polarization was attributed to the superposition of relaxation processes of all domains relaxing independently with their characteristic relaxation times.

Keywords:

• Polarization retention
• domain stability
• electrostatic force microscope
• epitaxial PZT film
• polarization relaxation

Acknowledgments

Paper originally presented at IMF-11, Iguassu Falls, Brazil, September 5–9, 2005;