Piezoresponse in the light of surface adsorbates: Relevance of defined surface conditions for perovskite materials

We report on the influence of a surface layer prevailing on perovskites on the piezoelectricity measured by piezoresponse force microscopy. Surface sensitive measurements show that this layer consists of chemisorbates and physisorbates. The surface layer can be removed to a large extent by heating the sample under ultrahigh vacuum conditions. It is shown that the effect of this treatment on the piezoresponse of the material is significant as the potential difference applied to the sample is no longer reduced by a voltage drop across the adsorbate layer. As a consequence the internal electric field is higher in comparison to the presence of a layer and so the piezoresponse is higher as well. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.