%0 Journal Article %A E Arenholz %A G Van Der Laan %A A Fraile-Rodríguez %A P Yu %A Q He %A Ramamoorthy Ramesh %B Physical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics %D 2010 %G eng %R 10.1103/PhysRevB.82.140103 %T Probing ferroelectricity in PbZr0.2 Ti0.8 O 3 with polarized soft x rays %V 82 %X The reduction in symmetry associated with the onset of ferroelectric order in PbZr0.2 Ti0.8 O3 (PZT) thin films leads to a pronounced difference at the Ti L3,2 absorption edges between spectra measured with the x-ray linear polarization perpendicular and parallel to the ferroelectric polarization. We introduce a general method to analyze the observed difference spectra using atomic multiplet calculations. Moreover, we find experimental evidence for structural changes in PZT induced by the reversal of the ferroelectric polarization. © 2010 The American Physical Society.