Poling behaviour at the grain boundaries of ferroelectric PZT thin films investigated by Electric Scanning Force Microscopy

The Electric Scanning Force Microscope is used to investigate the poling behaviour of ferroelectric PZT thin films. Successively measured polarization distributions were compared with high resolution. The poling characteristics are investigated separately at the grain boundaries and inside the grain volumes. For films prepared by sol-gel processing, it is shown that the switchable polarization is decreased at the grain boundaries with respect to the grain volumes. The coercive field is clearly increased at the grain boundaries.