abstract
Electrical bias-induced phase transitions underpin a wide range of applications from data storage to energy generation and conversion. The mechanisms behind these transitions are often quite complex and in many cases are extremely sensitive to local defects that act as centers for local transformations or pinning. Using ferroelectrics as an example, we review methods for probing bias-induced phase transitions and discuss the current limitations and challenges for extending the methods to field-induced phase transitions and electrochemical reactions in energy storage, biological and molecular systems.
keywords
SCANNING PROBE MICROSCOPY; FERROELECTRIC DATA-STORAGE; THIN-FILMS; DOMAIN-STRUCTURES; FORCE MICROSCOPY; SINGLE-CRYSTALS; NANOSCALE; SURFACE; POLARIZATION; EVOLUTION
subject category
Materials Science
authors
Kalinin, SV; Rodriguez, BJ; Jesse, S; Maksymovych, P; Seal, K; Nikiforov, M; Baddorf, AP; Kholkin, AL; Proksch, R
our authors
Andrei Kholkin
Principal Researcheracknowledgements
Research at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences was supported by the Scientific User Facilities Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, US Department of Energy (S.V.K., B.J.R., S.J., P.M., K.S., and A.P.B.). One of the authors (B.J.R.) acknowledges the financial support of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Thanks are also due to the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (project PTDC/FIS/81442/2006) and to Scientec for the support within joint CICECO-Agilent PFM laboratory (A.K.).