Study of domain stability on (Pb0.76Ca0.24)TiO3 thin films using piezoresponse microscopy

We introduce a method to investigate the domain stability issue based on piezoresponse microscopy. The switching and back-switching processes of sol-gel derived (Pb0.76Ca0.24)TiO3 thin films were investigated by comparing the local piezoelectric hysteresis loops in continuous mode and pulse mode. It was found that the local hysteresis loops acquired by the pulse mode in shorter pulse width were dominated by the back-switching process while the continuous mode piezoelectric hysteresis loop provides information on the domain switching process. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.