Poling behaviour at the grain boundaries of ferroelectric PZT thin films investigated by electric scanning force microscopy

Abstract

The poling behaviour of PZT(53/47) films was investigated separately at the grain boundaries and inside the grain volumes by ESFM. The films were prepared by sol-gel processing on Pt-metallized polycrystalline Al₂O₃, substrates and consisted of columnar grains with mean diameter of 220 nm. It was found that the polarization was decreased at simple grain boundaries in a border zone of 20 nm to 40 nm width, with up to 42% related to the grain volumes. At triple points, the polarization was decreased by the same amount in a border zone of 40 nm to 80 nm width with respect to the grain volumes. An asymmetric poling behaviour of the saturation polarization was found at the grain boundaries. The switchable polarization of the grain boundaries was determined to be 74% of that of the grain volumes. The coercive field was clearly increased at the grain boundaries.