%0 Journal Article
%K thin films
%K electron microscopy
%K Polarization
%K Epitaxial growth
%K polarization switching
%K bismuth compounds
%K ferroelectricity
%K Strontium compounds
%K Ferroelectric domain structure
%K Piezoelectric force microscopy
%K Piezoresponse data
%K Vectors
%A F Zavaliche
%A P Shafer
%A Ramamoorthy Ramesh
%A M.P Cruz
%A R.R Das
%A D.M Kim
%A C.B Eom
%B Applied Physics Letters
%D 2005
%G eng
%P 1-3
%R 10.1063/1.2149180
%T Polarization switching in epitaxial BiFeO 3 films
%V 87
%X Ferroelectric domain structure and polarization switching in an epitaxial BiFe O3 film grown on a 0.8° miscut SrTi O3 (001) substrate were studied by piezoelectric force microscopy. The film shows a two-domain stripe pattern, with the polarization vectors oriented along two 〈111〉 axes which form an angle of 71°. Polarization switching was investigated by locally poling the film. By combining the perpendicular and in-plane piezoresponse data we found that polarization rotates by 71° and 109°, while 180° switching is mainly observed at low fields. © 2005 American Institute of Physics.