Ferroelectric domain in PMN-xPT single crystal studied by piezoresponse force microscopy and finite-element analysis

Ferroelectric domain structures in (001)-cut Pb(Mg
_1/3
Nb
_2/3
)O
₃
-38%PbTiO
₃
and (011)-cut Pb(Mg
_1/3
Nb
_2/3
)O
₃
-60%PbTiO
₃
single crystals are studied by means of piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM). The out-of- plane-polarization (OPP) and in-plane-polarization (IPP) domain piezoresponse imaging reveals the domain and domain boundary configurations in these two different PbTiO
₃
-content crystals. Finite-element analysis is carried out to illustrate the OPP and IPP-PFM imagings mechanism and interpret the domains superposition phenomenon during PFM imaging.