Impact of elasticity on the piezoresponse of adjacent ferroelectric domains investigated by scanning force microscopy

TL;DR

This paper investigates how elastic interactions in ferroelectric crystals affect their piezoresponse, revealing that mechanical clamping at domain boundaries suppresses surface corrugations, complicating measurements by piezoresponse force microscopy.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the impact of elasticity on the piezoresponse of ferroelectric domains, highlighting the suppression of surface features due to mechanical clamping.

Findings

Elastic deformations occur on a scale comparable to crystal thickness.

Mechanical clamping suppresses surface corrugations in multi-domain ferroelectrics.

Piezoresponse force microscopy has limited access to domain boundary effects.

Abstract

As a consequence of elasticity, mechanical deformations of crystals occur on a length scale comparable to their thickness. This is exemplified by applying a homogeneous electric field to a multi-domain ferroelectric crystal: as one domain is expanding the adjacent ones are contracting, leading to clamping at the domain boundaries. The piezomechanically driven surface corrugation of micron-sized domain patterns in thick crystals using large-area top electrodes is thus drastically suppressed, barely accessible by means of piezoresponse force microscopy.