High-speed switching of nanoscale ferroelectric domains in congruent single-crystal LiTaO3

The nanodomain reversal characteristics of congruent LiTaO3 (CLT) single crystal are investigated. It is found that fast nanosecond domain switching can be achieved by reducing the sample thickness, even for CLT, which contains many Li vacancy defects that pin domain-wall movement. As an example, the authors obtain a polarization inverted domain dot with a radius of 7.9 nm by application of a 4 ns 10 V pulse. These results demonstrate that the speed of polarization reversal is closely related to the thickness of the medium. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.