Related papers: Piezo-generated charge mapping revealed through Di…
At first sight piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) seems an ideal technique for the determination of piezoelectric coefficients (PCs), thus making use of its ultra-high vertical resolution (<0.1 pm/V). Christman et al. \cite{Chr98} first…
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is widely used to measure surface topography of solid, soft, and living matter at the nanoscale. Moreover, by mapping forces as a function of distance to the surface, AFM can provide a wealth of information…
Nanogenerators and self-powered nanosensors have shown the potential to power low-consumption electronics and human-machine interfaces, but their practical implementation requires reliable, environmentally friendly and scalable, processes…
Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) combined with electrical modes provides a powerful contactless approach to characterize material electrical properties at the nanoscale. However, conventional electrostatic models often overlook dynamic charge…
Rapid emergence of the multimodal imaging in scanning probe, electron, and optical microscopies have brought forth the challenge of understanding the information contained in these complex data sets, targeting both the intrinsic…
There is an important difference between piezoelectric polymer films and solid crystals for the application to piezoelectric generators. In the case of polymers, the optimal piezoelectric response imposes {\it a large bending regime}.…
Piezoresistivity is the most commonly used sensing principle in cement-based smart composites for strain-monitoring applications. Nonetheless, the need for external electric power to conduct electrical resistivity measurements restricts the…
Fundamental mechanisms of energy storage, corrosion, sensing, and multiple biological functionalities are directly coupled to electrical processes and ionic dynamics at solid-liquid interfaces. In many cases, these processes are spatially…
Piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) has established itself as a very successful and reliable imaging and spectroscopic tool for measuring a wide variety of nanoscale electromechanical functionalities. Quantitative imaging of nanoscale…
The origin of "giant" flexoelectricity, orders of magnitude larger than theoretically predicted, yet frequently observed, is under intense scrutiny. There is mounting evidence correlating giant flexoelectric-like effects with parasitic…
We report piezo-response force microscopy studies of the static and dynamic properties of domain walls (DWs) in 11 to 36 nm thick films of crystalline ferroelectric poly(vinylidene-fluoride-trifluorethylene). The DW roughness exponent…
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is one of the most promising methods for investigating the structure of materials at the micro and nanoscale levels, as well as their local physical-mechanical properties. The experimental data obtained with…
The bending of a nonconducting piezoelectric ZnO nanowire is simulated by finite element method calculations. The top part is bent by a lateral force, which could be applied by an atomic force microscope (AFM) tip. The generated electrical…
A new study explores the distinct roles of spontaneous polarization and piezoelectric polarization in piezo-phototronic coupling. This investigation focuses on differences in photocatalytic and piezo-photocatalytic performance using sodium…
In 2014, Charge Gradient Microscopy (CGM) was first reported as a new scanning probe imaging mode, particularly well-suited for the characterisation of ferroelectrics. The implementation of the technique is straightforward; it involves…
We demonstrate the application of Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) based optical force microscopy to map the optical near-fields with nanometer resolution, limited only by the AFM probe geometry. We map the electric field distributions of…
The discovery of two-dimensional (2D) materials possessing switchable spontaneous polarization with atomic thickness opens up exciting opportunities to realize ultrathin, high-density electronic devices with potential applications ranging…
The nanoscopic characterization of ferroelectric thin films is crucial from their device application point of view. Standard characterization techniques are based on detecting the nanoscopic charge compensation current (switching current)…
The discovery of very large piezo- and pyroelectric effects in ZrO2 and HfO2-based thin films opens up new opportunities to develop silicon-compatible sensor and actor devices. The effects are amplified close to the polar-orthorhombic to…
The extrinsic size effect in Piezoresponse Force Microscopy of ferroelectric and piezoelectric thin films on non-polar dielectric substrate is analyzed. Analytical expressions for effective piezoresponse, object transfer function…