%0 Journal Article
%K Nucleation
%K Nanostructured materials
%K In situ
%K Atomic force microscopy
%K Ferroelectric materials
%K Epitaxial growth
%K Nanotechnology
%K Ferroelectricity
%K Ferroelectric domains
%K Image enhancement
%K Scanning probe microscopy
%K Imaging techniques
%K Piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM)
%K Consecutive images
%K High speeds
%K Temporal resolutions
%K Microscopic examination
%K Speed
%K Acquisition rates
%K Dynamic studies
%K Image frames
%K Nanoscale resolution
%K Nanoscale imaging
%K Piezo-force microscopy
%K Piezoactuation
%A R Nath
%A Y.-H Chu
%A N.A Polomoff
%A Ramamoorthy Ramesh
%A B.D Huey
%B Applied Physics Letters
%D 2008
%G eng
%R 10.1063/1.2969045
%T High speed piezoresponse force microscopy: <1 frame per second nanoscale imaging
%V 93
%X An atomic force microscopy (AFM) based technique is described for mapping piezoactuation with nanoscale resolution in less than a second per complete image frame. "High speed piezo force microscopy" (HSPFM) achieves this <100× increase in acquisition rates by coupling a commercial AFM with concepts of acoustics. This allows previously inaccessible dynamic studies, including measuring ferroelectric domain nucleation and growth during in situ poling. Hundreds of consecutive images are analyzed with 49 μs temporal resolution per pixel per frame, revealing 32 nucleation sites/ μ m2 with 36 μm/s average domain velocities. HSPFM images acquired in as fast as 1/10 th s are also presented. © 2008 American Institute of Physics.