Piezoresponse force microscopy and nanoferroic phenomena

Gruverman, Alexei; Alexe, Marin; Meier, Dennis

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-09650-8

Cited by 293 publications

(230 citation statements)

References 98 publications

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“…Piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) has evolved into a powerful tool for characterizing and manipulating the functional behavior of a wide range of ferroelectrics and related polar materials at the nanometer scale. [ 1 ] Along with other scanning probe microscopy (SPM) techniques it enabled the discovery of a series of phenomena, which inspired new fundamental physics and exciting device applications. One of the most notable examples is the observation of electrically conducting domain walls in otherwise insulating ferroic materials, such as magnetoelectric BiFeO 3 thin films, [ 2 ] improper ferroelectric ErMnO 3 crystals, [ 3 ] and proper ferroelectric LiNbO 3 crystals and films.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observation of Unconventional Dynamics of Domain Walls in Uniaxial Ferroelectric Lead Germanate

Bak

Holstad

Tan

et al. 2020

Adv Funct Materials

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Application of scanning probe microscopy techniques such as piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) opens the possibility to re-visit the ferroelectrics previously studied by the macroscopic electrical testing methods and establish a link between their local nanoscale characteristics and integral response. The nanoscale PFM studies and phase field modeling of the static and dynamic behavior of the domain structure in the well-known ferroelectric material lead germanate, Pb 5 Ge 3 O 11 , are reported. Several unusual phenomena are revealed: 1) domain formation during the paraelectric-to-ferroelectric phase transition, which exhibits an atypical cooling rate dependence; 2) unexpected electrically induced formation of the oblate domains due to the preferential domain walls motion in the directions perpendicular to the polar axis, contrary to the typical domain growth behavior observed so far; 3) absence of the bound charges at the 180° head-to-head (H-H) and tail-totail (T-T) domain walls, which typically exhibit a significant charge density in other ferroelectrics due to the polarization discontinuity. This strikingly different behavior is rationalized by the phase field modeling of the dynamics of uncharged H-H and T-T domain walls. The results provide a new insight into the emergent physics of the ferroelectric domain boundaries, revealing unusual properties not exhibited by conventional Isingtype walls.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observation of Unconventional Dynamics of Domain Walls in Uniaxial Ferroelectric Lead Germanate

Bak

Holstad

Tan

et al. 2020

Adv Funct Materials

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“…Picoampere scale electric current from the suspended MoS 2 has been observed via C‐AFM . PFM mode is generally regarded as a powerful and direct way to characterize the piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties by applying an out‐of‐plane electric field to excite the sample through a conductive probe . Although there are sufficient attention and significant progress, it is still challenging to directly observe the piezoelectric response on atomically thin materials.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Probing Effective Out‐of‐Plane Piezoelectricity in van der Waals Layered Materials Induced by Flexoelectricity

Wang

Cui

Chen

et al. 2019

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Many van der Waals layered 2D materials, such as h‐BN, transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), and group‐III monochalcogenides, have been predicted to possess piezoelectric and mechanically flexible natures, which greatly motivates potential applications in piezotronic devices and nanogenerators. However, only intrinsic in‐plane piezoelectricity exists in these 2D materials and the piezoelectric effect is confined in odd‐layers of TMDs. The present work is intent on combining the free‐standing design and piezoresponse force microscopy techniques to obtain and directly quantify the effective out‐of‐plane electromechanical coupling induced by strain gradient on atomically thin MoS2 and InSe flakes. Conspicuous piezoresponse and the measured piezoelectric coefficient with respect to the number of layers or thickness are systematically illustrated for both MoS2 and InSe flakes. Note that the promising effective piezoelectric coefficient (deff33) of about 21.9 pm V−1 is observed on few‐layered InSe. The out‐of‐plane piezoresponse arises from the net dipole moment along the normal direction of the curvature membrane induced by strain gradient. This work not only provides a feasible and flexible method to acquire and quantify the out‐of‐plane electromechanical coupling on van der Waals layered materials, but also paves the way to understand and tune the flexoelectric effect of 2D systems.

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“…The piezoresponse force microscope (PFM) is a voltage-modulated version of AFM, and after Güthner et al used it to research the local poling of ferroelectric P(VDF-TrFE) film in 1992 [96], it took several years for PFM to become a mainstream analytical tool of ferroelectrics. PFM is able to image and manipulate ferroelectric domains nondestructively, and the physical properties (e.g., domain wall dynamics, bias of nucleation, piezoelectric coefficients, and coercive voltage) can be measured directly [97]. There have been many books and papers describing the technical details of PFM comprehensively [94,95,[98][99][100][101], and it is worth noting that the researchers need to understand the principle of PFM in order to avoid misinterpreting the data and drawing incorrect conclusions [97].…”

Section: Scanning Probe Microscope (Spm)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Aside from ferroelectricity, there can be several other factors causing ferroelectric-like PFM response. Thus, it is essential to verify the existence of ferroelectricity by detecting domains in diverse polarization directions and switching the domain states hysteretically under applied electric fields [94,97].…”

Section: Scanning Probe Microscope (Spm)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization and Application of PVDF and Its Copolymer Films Prepared by Spin-Coating and Langmuir–Blodgett Method

et al. 2019

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Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) and its copolymers are key polymers, displaying properties such as flexibility and electroactive responses, including piezoelectricity, pyroelectricity, and ferroelectricity. In the past several years, they have been applied in numerous applications, such as memory, transducers, actuators, and energy harvesting and have shown thriving prospects in the ongoing research and commercialization process. The crystalline polymorphs of PVDF can present nonpolar α, ε phase and polar β, γ, and δ phases with different processing methods. The copolymers, such as poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE)), can crystallize directly into a phase analogous to the β phase of PVDF. Since the β phase shows the highest dipole moment among polar phases, many reproducible and efficient methods producing β-phase PVDF and its copolymer have been proposed. In this review, PVDF and its copolymer films prepared by spin-coating and Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) method are introduced, and relevant characterization techniques are highlighted. Finally, the development of memory, artificial synapses, and medical applications based on PVDF and its copolymers is elaborated.

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Piezoresponse force microscopy and nanoferroic phenomena

Cited by 293 publications

References 98 publications

Observation of Unconventional Dynamics of Domain Walls in Uniaxial Ferroelectric Lead Germanate

Observation of Unconventional Dynamics of Domain Walls in Uniaxial Ferroelectric Lead Germanate

Probing Effective Out‐of‐Plane Piezoelectricity in van der Waals Layered Materials Induced by Flexoelectricity

Characterization and Application of PVDF and Its Copolymer Films Prepared by Spin-Coating and Langmuir–Blodgett Method

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