Local retention behaviors of epitaxial and polycrystalline PbMg1∕3Nb2∕3O3–PbTiO3 thin films by scanning force microscopy

Abstract

The authors report the results of retention in epitaxial and polycrystalline PbMg1∕3Nb2∕3O3–PbTiO3 (PMN-PT) thin films on SrRuO3 (SRO) and Pt. The SRO electrodes were deposited by pulsed laser deposition and the PMN-PT thin films were coated by a sol-gel method. Local poling behaviors of the PMN-PT domains were investigated as a function of time in both single-poled and reverse-poled regions by scanning force microscopy. An extended exponential decay is observed in the PMN-PT/SRO heterostructures while a fluctuated relaxation is shown in the PMN-PT/Pt films, suggesting that crystal orientation and grain growth is critical to understand retention of relaxor ferroelectrics.