TY - JOUR
KW - Nucleation
KW - Temperature distribution
KW - Ferroelectric materials
KW - Polarization switching
KW - Ferroelectricity
KW - Ferroelectric domains
KW - Ferroelectric films
KW - Ferroelectric switching
KW - Epitaxial films
KW - Piezoresponse
KW - Vacuum
KW - Ambient environments
KW - Disorder effects
KW - Electrostatic fields
KW - Ferroelectric surfaces
KW - Force spectroscopies
KW - Metal tips
KW - Nucleation mechanisms
KW - Phase fields
KW - Temperature dependence
KW - Temperature ranges
KW - Thermal fluctuations
KW - Variable temperatures
AU - P Maksymovych
AU - S Jesse
AU - M Huijben
AU - Ramamoorthy Ramesh
AU - A Morozovska
AU - S Choudhury
AU - L.-Q Chen
AU - A.P Baddorf
AU - S.V Kalinin
AB - The temperature dependence of ferroelectric domain nucleation in epitaxial films of BiFeO3 is studied using variable temperature ultrahigh vacuum piezoresponse force spectroscopy in the 50 to 300 K temperature range. The nucleation bias corresponding to the onset of local ferroelectric switching in the volume of an electrostatic field confined by the metal tip was found to change less than 20% across the entire temperature range. A combination of the analytical and phase-field analysis proves that the weak temperature dependence of nucleation bias is a hallmark of an intrinsic nucleation mechanism with minimal contribution of thermal fluctuations. The effect of disorder on the observed distribution of the nucleation bias between vacuum and ambient environments is compared. © 2009 The American Physical Society.
BT - Physical Review Letters
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.017601
LA - eng
M1 - 1
N1 - cited By 43
N2 - The temperature dependence of ferroelectric domain nucleation in epitaxial films of BiFeO3 is studied using variable temperature ultrahigh vacuum piezoresponse force spectroscopy in the 50 to 300 K temperature range. The nucleation bias corresponding to the onset of local ferroelectric switching in the volume of an electrostatic field confined by the metal tip was found to change less than 20% across the entire temperature range. A combination of the analytical and phase-field analysis proves that the weak temperature dependence of nucleation bias is a hallmark of an intrinsic nucleation mechanism with minimal contribution of thermal fluctuations. The effect of disorder on the observed distribution of the nucleation bias between vacuum and ambient environments is compared. © 2009 The American Physical Society.
PY - 2009
T2 - Physical Review Letters
TI - Intrinsic nucleation mechanism and disorder effects in polarization switching on ferroelectric surfaces
VL - 102
SN - 00319007
ER -