Near-field resonance shifts of ferroelectric barium titanate domains upon low-temperature phase transition

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

Scattering scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) has been established as an excellent tool to probe domains in ferroelectric crystals at room temperature. Here, we apply the s-SNOM possibilities to quantify low-temperature phase transitions in barium titanate single crystals by both temperature-dependent resonance spectroscopy and domain distribution imaging. The orthorhombic-to-tetragonal structural phase transition at 263 K manifests in a change of the spatial arrangement of ferroelectric domains as probed with a tunable free-electron laser. More intriguingly, the domain distribution unravels non-favored domain configurations upon sample recovery to room temperature as explainable by increased sample disorder. Ferroelectric domains and topographic influences are clearly deconvolved even at low temperatures, since complementing our s-SNOM nano-spectroscopy with piezoresponse force microscopy and topographic imaging using one and the same atomic force microscope and tip.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number053109
JournalApplied physics letters
Volume105
Issue number5
Publication statusPublished - 4 Aug 2014
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0002-2484-4158/work/158768088

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas