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Nonswitching regions which degrade the electrical properties of ferroelectric thin films were investigated by scanning probe microscopy. An 80-nm-thick PbZr 0.5 Ti 0.5 O 3 (001)(PZT) ferroelectric thin film and a YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7−δ (100) bottom electrode were grown on SrTiO 3 (100) substrates by the pulsed laser deposition method. We successfully detected nonswitching regions in the PZT thin films by measuring ferroelectric hysteresis loops using a scanning probe microscope, and the hysteresis loops showed an asymmetric shift toward negative remanent polarization. It is suggested that the nonswitching regions originate from dislocations caused by a lattice mismatch between the PbZr 0.5 Ti 0.5 O 3 (001) and the YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7−δ (100). The effective thickness of the nonswitching regions is estimated to be 20 nm from the amount of the shift of the hysteresis loops.

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