In a joint effort of the SPM group (Institute of Physics, MU Leoben) together with a group of the Materials Center Leoben (MCL) a measurement and evaluation procedure based on so called vector piezoresponse force microscopy (vector-PFM) has been developed that allows to determine the spatial orientation of the individual piezoelectric domains.
Abstract: Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) is one of the prominent materials used in polycrystalline piezoelectric devices. Since the ferroelectric domain orientation is the most important parameter affecting the electromechanical performance, analyzing the domain orientation distribution is of great importance for the development and understanding of improved piezoceramic devices. Here, vector piezoresponse force microscopy (vector-PFM) has been applied in order to reconstruct the ferroelectric domain orientation distribution function of polished sections of device-ready polycrystalline lead zirconate titanate (PZT) material. A measurement procedure and a computer program based on the software Mathematica have been developed to automatically evaluate the vector-PFM data for reconstructing the domain orientation function. The method is tested on differently in-plane and out-of-plane poled PZT samples, and the results reveal the expected domain patterns and allow determination of the polarization orientation distribution function at high accuracy.
Read the full paper here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-18843-4