Ferroelectric properties of individual barium titanate nanowires investigated by scanned probe Microscopy

We report scanned probe investigations on the ferroelectric properties of individual single-crystalline barium titanate nanowires. We show that nonvolatile electric polarization can be reproducibly induced and manipulated on these nanowires, thereby demonstrating that nanowires as small as 10 nm in diameter retain ferroelectricity. The coercive field for polarization reversal is determined to be similar to7 kV/cm, and the retention time for the induced polarization exceeds 5 days. These nanowires should provide promising materials for fundamental investigations on nanoscale ferroelectricity, and they may also be useful in nanoscale nonvolatile memory applications.