Polarization Switching Mechanisms for Epitaxial Ferroelectric Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 Films

Epitaxial lms have well-ordered lattice structures similar to single crystals but contain many defects such as dislocations, low-angle grain boundaries and strain. These kinds of defects can aect the switching properties of epitaxial lms and are of interest for the application of the lms to switching devices. We measured the polarization switching of epitaxial Pb(Zr0:4Ti0:6)O3 (PZT) lms with SrRuO3 electrodes, and tested the domain-wall motion with a piezoelectric force microscope. The switching behaviors of the epitaxial lms followed the Kolmogorov-Avrami-Ishibashi model at various eld regions. The piezoelectric measurement showed that the domain-wall motion in the epitaxial PZT lms seems to follow creep motion behavior, dierent from the limited domain-wall motion in polycrystalline PZT lms. The frequency dependence of the coerciveeld (Ec) of the epitaxial PZT lms was induced from the polarization switching data, and it showed f1=12 dependence of Ec. KCI Citation Count: 27