POLING BEHAVIOR AT THE GRAIN-BOUNDARIES OF PZT THIN-FILMS INVESTIGATED BY MEANS OF ELECTRIC FORCE MICROSCOPY

The Electric Force Microscope is used to investigate the poling behavi our of ferroelectric PZT thin films. Successively measured polarizatio n distributions were compared with high resolution The poling characte ristics are investigated separately at the grain boundaries and inside the grain volumes. For films prepared by sol-gel processing, it is sh own that the switchable polarization is decreased at the grain boundar ies with respect to the grain volumes. The coercive field is clearly i ncreased at the grain boundaries.