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Local Electromechanical Properties and Grain Size Effects in Ferroelectric Relaxors Studied by Scanning Piezoelectric Microscopy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2011

A. L. Kholkin ,
V. V. Shvartsman ,
M. Woitas  and
A. Safari
A. L. Kholkin
Affiliation:
Department of Ceramics and Glass Engineering, University of Aveiro, 3810–193 Aveiro, Portugal
V. V. Shvartsman
Affiliation:
Department of Ceramics and Glass Engineering, University of Aveiro, 3810–193 Aveiro, Portugal
M. Woitas
Affiliation:
Department of Ceramics and Glass Engineering, University of Aveiro, 3810–193 Aveiro, Portugal
A. Safari
Affiliation:
Department of Ceramics and Materials Engineering, Rutgers University, New Jersey 08854, U.S.A.
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Abstract

The local electromechanical properties of relaxor 0.9Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-0.1PbTiO3 (PMN-PT) films are investigated by Scanning Force Microscopy (SFM) in a piezoelectric contact mode. The domain contrast is observed only in some grains (∼20 % of the entire surface), which showed clear ferroelectric behavior. Thus on the microscopic level the material behaves as a composite with ferroelectric regions embedded in the non-polar matrix. This was attributed to the relaxor-to-ferroelectric phase transition induced by the internal bias field. The local hysteresis loops are found to depend on the size of the grains. A distinct correlation between the values of the effective piezoelectric coefficients, deffi and the size of the respective grains is observed. Small grains exhibit slim piezoelectric hysteresis loops with low remanent deff while relatively strong piezoelectric activity is characteristic of larger grains. In addition, large grains exhibit longer relaxation time after poling with an effective time constant increasing with the grain size. The nature of size effect is discussed taking in terms of dynamics of nanopolar clusters and SFM instrumentation.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 748: Symposium U – Ferroelectric Thin Films XI , 2002 , U11.10
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2003

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References

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