Observation and manipulation of the as-grown maze domain structure in lead germanate by scanning force microscopy

The ferroelectric domain structure of single crystalline Pb5Ge3O11 was inspected and manipulated using piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) and Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM). The irregularly shaped three-dimensional maze reflecting the as-grown domain structure on the micron and submicron scale was resolved with both PFM and KPFM. The temporal stability and recovery of that equilibrium structure was tested with macroscopic and local electric fields. Fractal analysis was applied for quantitative characterization of the complicated domain geometry. While spatially extended fields lead to a partial decay of the maze structure, local electric fields applied by the PFM tip result in addition in pronounced surface charging. The time constants of charge decay were extracted by KPFM and could be attributed to mobile charge redistribution and backswitching. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.