@article{33747,
  keywords = {Nucleation, Pulsed laser deposition, Crystal orientation, Electrodes, Atomic force microscopy, Strontium titanate, Lead compounds, Ferroelectric thin films, Lead zirconate titanate (PZT), Light polarization, Thickness measurement, Piezoresponse microscopy, Relaxation processes, Lanthanum strontium cobalt oxides},
  author = {C.S Ganpule and V Nagarajan and H Li and A.S Ogale and A.D Martinez and S.B Ogale and S Aggarwall and E Williams and P De Wolf and Ramamoorthy Ramesh},
  title = {Direct observation of domain dynamics in lead zirconate titanate thin films},
  abstract = {We report observations of the ferroelectric domain structure in epitaxial lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ferroelectric thin films using piezoresponse microscopy. Epitaxial PZT films with a nominal composition of PbZr0.2Ti0.8O3 were deposited onto single crystal SrTiO3 substrates by pulsed laser deposition, with an epitaxial layer of La-Sr-Co-O as the bottom electrode. By manipulating the film thickness, a uniform 2-dimensional grid of 90° domains (a-domains, i.e., c-axis in the plane of the film) has been induced. Our studies show that the polarization direction in the film is substantially preferentially oriented and that nucleation of reverse 180° domains occurs preferentially at 90° domain interfaces. Polarization reversal occurs through the nucleation and subsequent growth of "semicircular/elliptical" reverse domains, which subsequently consume the entire region as a function of reversal time. The reversal is seen to fit a stretched exponential.},
  year = {2001},
  journal = {Integrated Ferroelectrics},
  volume = {32},
  number = {1-4},
  pages = {199-208},
  publisher = {Gordon and Breach Science Publishers Inc.},
  issn = {10584587},
  note = {cited By 5},
  language = {eng},
}