Study of the ferroelectric domain structure and evolution in PMN-30% PT single crystal by means of piezoresponse force microscopy

Abstract

In this paper we review our recent research in the study of domain configuration and evolution in PMN-xPT single crystal by means of piezoresponse-force-microscopy(PFM).In particular,we focus on the PMN-30%PT single crystal since this PT content possesses the highest application potential in ultrasound transducers etc.The method to observe the ferroelectric domain structure is based on the reversed piezoelectric effect;while the electric field is applied through a conductive atomic force microscope (AFM)tip and the crystal surface oscillation is measured by AFM using a lock-in amplifier technique where the resolved amplitude reflects the magnitude of d_(33) and the phase contrast represents the ferroelectric domain orientation.The techniques of in-plane polarization and out-of-plane polarization PFM are introduced, and some effects to the domain imaging,such as static charge effect,skin effect and mechanical polishing effect,are illustrated.Domain-size distribution,crystal-orientation-dependent,time-dependent and temperature-dependent domain evolutions in the crystal are studied.