Ferroelectricity

Scanning probe microscopy investigation of ferroelectric properties of barium strontium niobate crystals

T. R. Volk^a, L. V. Simagina^a, R. V. Gainutdinov^a, E. S. Ivanova^a, L. I. Ivleva^b, S. V. Mitko<sup>c

a</sup> Institute of Cristallography Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
^b Prokhorov General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
^c "NT-MDT", Zelenograd

Abstract: The ferroelectric properties of relaxor ferroelectric materials Sr$_x$Ba$_{1-x}$Nb$_2$O$_6$ of different compositions have been investigated using scanning probe microscopy and macroscopic polarization methods. An analysis of the results obtained from microscopic and macroscopic measurements of the hysteresis loops has demonstrated that a frequency dependence of the coercive field $E_c$ is observed at frequencies $f$ in the range from 0.03 to 250 Hz, so that the coercive field $E_c$ regularly decreases with decreasing frequency. The observation of the kinetics of domains under a direct-current voltage applied to the probe of the atomic force microscope has revealed a lateral motion of domain walls in response to electric fields $E\ll E_c$. This result qualitatively explains a slow polarization relaxation occurring for a giant time in Sr$_x$Ba$_{1-x}$Nb$_2$O$_6$.

Received: 10.05.2011

 English version: Physics of the Solid State, 2011, 53:12, 2468–2475

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