We report the surface charge on ferroelectric thin film by the
high electric field induced at a scanning probe microscope tip and
its influence on the signal obtained in the measurement of surface
potential. To calculate the electric field induced ...
We report the surface charge on ferroelectric thin film by the
high electric field induced at a scanning probe microscope tip and
its influence on the signal obtained in the measurement of surface
potential. To calculate the electric field induced at a SPM tip
when a domain of the ferroelectric thin film is switched by a
given bias, two schematic models of a spherical SPM tip and a
cone-shaped SPM tip are considered. For the cone-shaped SPM tip,
the electric field was larger than that of the spherical SPM tip,
which is probably due to its relatively high capacitance. Based on
the consideration of Schottky emission, the Schottky currents of
the two models showed values large enough to induce a charge on
the surface of the ferroelectric thin film. From the Schottky
currents, the induced charge densities of the two models were
obtained and these induced charge densities exceed the charge
density of saturated polarization in ferroelectric
PbZr$_{0.53}$Ti$_{0.47}$O$_{3}$ thin film above 1.1 V for the
cone-shaped SPM tip or 2.0 V for the spherical SPM tip