A decade of piezoresponse force microscopy: progress, challenges, and opportunities

Abstract

Coupling between electrical and mechanical phenomena is a near-universal characteristic of inorganic and biological systems alike, with examples ranging from ferroelectric perovskites to electromotor proteins in cellular membranes. Understanding electromechanical functionality in materials such as ferroelectric nanocrystals, thin films, relaxor ferroelectrics, and biosystems requires probing these properties on the nanometer level of individual grain, domain, or protein fibril. In the last decade, Piezoresponse Force M icroscopy (PFM ) was established a powerful tool for nanoscale imaging, spectroscopy, and manipulation of ferroelectric and piezoelectric materials. Here, we present principles and recent advances in PFM , including vector and frequency dependent imaging of piezoelectric materials, briefly review applications for ferroelectric materials, discuss prospects for electromechanical imaging of local crystallographic and molecular orientations and disorder, and summarize future challenges and opportunities for PFM emerging in the second decade since its invention. * Corresponding author, sergei2@ornl.gov 2

Piezoelectricity in collagen type II fibrils measured by scanning probe microscopy

“…Quantitative PFM remains a challenge; 41 therefore the relative shear coefficients were measured and compared for collagen type II and collagen type I using the same tip and LPFM conditions. Figs.…”

Dynamic piezoresponse force microscopy: Spatially resolved probing of polarization dynamics in time and voltage domains

“…54 The underpinning concept in piezoresponse force microscopy and ESM is the use of a SPM tip as a local strain sensor detecting bias-induced material deformation. [23][24][25][26]32,[55][56][57] In tip electrode PFM and ESM, the tip creates an electric field confined in a nanometersized region of material, inducing polarization switching or electrochemical processes. [58][59][60] In top-electrode PFM, the electric field is (approximately) uniform, while the strain detection is local.…”

“…21,22 In particular, in ferroelectric materials, the local order parameter can be readily probed through the electromechanical response. Combined with the ability to manipulate the order parameter locally through tip bias, this enabled broad applications of piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] and spectroscopy. 32,33 PFM has been used extensively to map hysteresis behavior [34][35][36] and Preisach densities 37,38 in ferroelectric materials.…”

Free surface domain nucleation in a ferroelectric under an electrically charged tip

“…This has been the focus of many experimental efforts, e.g., switching spectroscopy piezoresponse force microscopy (SS-PFM) to detect quantitatively the local switching characteristics. 9 There are also related experiments using light rather than concentrated electric fields. 10,11 Theoretical analyses to complement these experiments include Refs.…”