%0 Journal Article
%K Nucleation
%K Pulsed laser deposition
%K Crystal orientation
%K Electrodes
%K Atomic force microscopy
%K Strontium titanate
%K Lead compounds
%K Ferroelectric thin films
%K Lead zirconate titanate (PZT)
%K Light polarization
%K Thickness measurement
%K Piezoresponse microscopy
%K Relaxation processes
%K Lanthanum strontium cobalt oxides
%A C.S Ganpule
%A V Nagarajan
%A H Li
%A A.S Ogale
%A A.D Martinez
%A S.B Ogale
%A S Aggarwall
%A E Williams
%A P De Wolf
%A Ramamoorthy Ramesh
%B Integrated Ferroelectrics
%D 2001
%G eng
%I Gordon and Breach Science Publishers Inc.
%P 199-208
%T Direct observation of domain dynamics in lead zirconate titanate thin films
%V 32
%X We report observations of the ferroelectric domain structure in epitaxial lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ferroelectric thin films using piezoresponse microscopy. Epitaxial PZT films with a nominal composition of PbZr0.2Ti0.8O3 were deposited onto single crystal SrTiO3 substrates by pulsed laser deposition, with an epitaxial layer of La-Sr-Co-O as the bottom electrode. By manipulating the film thickness, a uniform 2-dimensional grid of 90° domains (a-domains, i.e., c-axis in the plane of the film) has been induced. Our studies show that the polarization direction in the film is substantially preferentially oriented and that nucleation of reverse 180° domains occurs preferentially at 90° domain interfaces. Polarization reversal occurs through the nucleation and subsequent growth of "semicircular/elliptical" reverse domains, which subsequently consume the entire region as a function of reversal time. The reversal is seen to fit a stretched exponential.