Piezoresponse through a ferroelectric nanotube wall

We report on the controlled local switching and imaging of local ferroelectric polarizations oriented perpendicular to the long axis of a lead zirconate titanate (PZT) nanotube. Piezoresponse force microscopy and ferroelectric piezoelectric hysteresis data indicate stable polarizations oriented along the radial, finite-thickness direction can be formed in a nanoshell geometry. The results of infrared spectroscopy and of the character of as-found polarizations are consistent with recent findings linking surface chemical environment to ferroelectric stability and to orientation of ferroelectric polarizations. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3263714]