title: Advanced fabrication and characterization of epitaxial ferroelectric thin films and multilayers.
abstract: Understanding the behavior of ferroelectrics on the nanoscale level requires the production of materials of the highest quality and advanced characterization techniques for probing the fascinating properties of these systems with reduced dimensions. Here we give an overview of our recent achievements in this area, which includes the detailed study of the suppression of ferroelectricity in PbTiO3 thin films, the fabrication of PbTiO3/SrTiO3 superlattices in which ferroelectricity shows some surprising behavior, and finally the manipulation of nanoscale ferroelectric domains using the atomic force microscope which leads to the precise analysis of domain wall creep and roughness in Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 thin films.
authors.affiliation: DPMC, University of Geneva, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland. matthew.dawber@physics.unige.ch
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dawber
authors.forename: Céline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lichtensteiger
authors.forename: Patrycja
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Paruch
authors.forename: Jean-Marc
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Triscone
mesh_terms: D017097:Electric Impedance; D004563:Electrochemistry / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D008422:Materials Testing; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000528:radiation effects / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D010316:Particle Size
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial