Applications of piezoresponse force microscopy in materials research: from inorganic ferroelectrics to biopiezoelectrics and beyond

摘要: Piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) probes the mechanical deformation of a sample in response to an electric field applied with tip atomic microscope. Originally developed more than two decades ago study ferroelectric materials, this technique has since been used probe electromechanical functionality wide range piezoelectric materials including organic and biological systems. also demonstrated as useful tool detect strain originating from electrical phenomena non-piezoelectric materials. Parallelling advances analytical numerical modelling, many technical improvements have made last decade: switching spectroscopy PFM allows polarisation properties ferroelectrics be resolved real space nanometric resolution, while dual ac resonance tracking band excitation improve signal-to-noise ratio. In turn, these led increasingly large m...