This book presents recent advances in the field of nanoscale characterization of ferroelectric materials using scanning probe microscopy (SPM). It addresses various imaging mechanisms of ferroelectric domains in SPM, quantitative analysis of the piezoresponse signals as well as basic physics of ferroelectrics at the nanoscale level, such as nanoscale switching, scaling effects, and transport behavior. This state-of-the-art review of theory and experiments on nanoscale polarization phenomena will be a useful reference for advanced readers as well for newcomers and graduate students interested in the SPM techniques. The non-specialists will obtain valuable information about different approaches to electrical characterization by SPM, while researchers in the ferroelectric field will be provided with details of SPM-based measurements of ferroelectrics.

Inhalt

1 Electric Scanning Probe Imaging and Modification of Ferroelectric Surfaces.- 2 Challenges in the Analysis of the Local Piezoelectric Response.- 3 Electrical Characterization of Nanoscale Ferroelectric Structures.- 4 Nanoscale Optical Probes of Ferroelectric Materials.- 5 Scanning Nonlinear Dielectric Microscopy for Investigation of Ferroelectric Polarization.- 6 Nanoscale Piezoelectric Phenomena in Epitaxial PZT Thin Films.- 7 Scanning Probe Microscopy of Ferroelectric Domains near Phase Transitions.- 8 Nanodomain Engineering in Ferroelectric Crystals Using High Voltage Atomic Force Microscopy.- 9 Nanoinspection of Dielectric and Polarization Properties at Inner and Outer Interfaces in PZT Thin Films.