Nanometer spot allocation for Raman spectroscopy on ferroelectrics by polarization and piezoresponse force microscopy

We report the 100% correlation between polarized light microscopy (PLM), pi ezoresponse force microscopy (PFM), and micro-Raman spectroscopy when inves tigating domain-rich ferroelectric systems. In order to allocate the desire d spot on a submicrometer scale, both PLM and PFM were combined to elucidat e the effective three-dimensional ferroelectric domain distribution. With P FM we observe spike-like a and c domains well inside extended a and c-polar ized areas, which were not conclusive with PLM. The knowledge on such a dom ain distribution is essential when addressing quantitative micro-Raman spec troscopy. In addition, we show the unambiguous differentiation between a an d c domains on the submicrometer scale using the B-2 mode of lattice vibrat ions. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.