Inversely-polarized nanodomains

Direct observation of inversely-polarized frozen nanodomains in fatigued FeCaps... 

The classical experimental setup developed for fe polarization reversal implies a singledomain fe sample sandwiched between two electrodes [28], While conventional domain inversion techniques use equal sized electrodes covering the polar faces of fe templates, nanodomain inversion occurs under totally different conditions when the bottom electrode is a uniform plate and the upper one is a point contact. Two different kinds of the upper switching mobile nanoelectrodes may be considered afm tip (and/or array of tips) and electron drop formed using electron beam exposure. When a voltage stress is applied to the nanoelectrode, both the electric field intensity and its spatial distribution strongly differ in fe thin films (thin fe crystals) and bulk fe crystals. 

The physical limits and technological requirements of domain dimensions for a new generation of nanodomain-based devices were considered. It was shown that for both ferroelectric thin films and crystals the achievable domain size is in the range of 100 nm. It is shown that for 100 nm thick ferroelectric films, an application of nanosize electrodes does not make a big difference compared with conventional polarization reversal setups and physical mechanism. However, in the case of bulk ferroelectrics, the use of a switching afm tip electrode for generation of long domains with a nanometer size radius requires a new approach both for polarization reversal instrumentation and physics of domain inversion. 

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