High speed piezo force microscopy: Nanoscale and nanosecond direct observations of domain switching

High Speed Piezo Force Microscopy (HSPFM) is a new variation of Atomic Force Miroscopy (AFM) for direct nanoscale measurements of domain switching dynamics. Image acquisition is accelerated from several minutes for standard piezo force microscopy to as fast as a fraction of a second for HSPFM. Movies of consecutive images during in-situ domain switching therefore allow high spatial and temporal resolution, with less than 500 nanosecond poling per pixel achieved. The influence of individual defects on domain nucleation, growth mechanisms, switching speed, and switching energy are therefore uniquely apparent.