%0 Journal Article
%K Film growth
%K Crystal structure
%K Crystallography
%K Bismuth compounds
%K Ferroelectricity
%K Ferroelectric domain structure
%K Polarization direction
%K Piezoelectric force microscopy (PEM)
%K Light polarization
%K In-plane piezoresponse
%K Cantilever beams
%A F Zavaliche
%A R.R Das
%A D.M Kim
%A C.B Eom
%A S.Y Yang
%A P Shafer
%A Ramamoorthy Ramesh
%B Applied Physics Letters
%D 2005
%G eng
%P 1-3
%R 10.1063/1.2126804
%T Ferroelectric domain structure in epitaxial BiFeO 3 films
%V 87
%X Piezoelectric force microscopy is employed to study the ferroelectric domain structure in a 600 nm thick epitaxial BiFe O3 film. In the as-grown film, a mosaic-like domain structure is observed. Scans taken with the cantilever pointing along the principal crystallographic directions enabled us to reconstruct the polarization direction. By combining the perpendicular and in-plane piezoresponse data, we found that the ferroelectric domain structure is mainly described by four polarization directions. These directions point oppositely along two body diagonals, which form an angle of ∼71°. The other variants are also occasionally observed. © 2005 American Institute of Physics.