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Low-temperature nanospectroscopy of the structural ferroelectric phases in single-crystalline barium titanate

Döring, J.; Lang, D.; Wehmeier, L.; Kuschewski, F.; Nörenberg, T.; Kehr, S. C.; Eng, L. M.

We optically investigate the local-scale ferroelectric domain structure of tetragonal, orthorhombic, and rhombohedral barium titanate (BTO) single crystals using scattering-type scanning near-field infrared (IR) optical microscopy (s-SNIM) at temperatures down to 150 K. Thanks to the precisely tunable narrow-band free-electron laser FELBE, we are able to explore the spectral fingerprints and IR resonances of these three phases and their domain orientations in the optical IR near-field. More clearly, every structural phase is analyzed with respect to its near-field resonances close to a wavelength of 17μm when exploring the (111)-oriented BTO sample surface. Furthermore, near-field imaging at these resonances is performed, that clearly allows for the unambiguous optical identification of different domain orientations. Since our s-SNIM bases on a non-contact scanning force microscope, our s-SNIM findings are backed up by sample-topography and piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) imaging, providing complementary information in an excellent match to the s-SNOM results.

Keywords: s-SNIM; infrared nanospectroscopy; FEL; phase transition; low temperature

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Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-27729
Publ.-Id: 27729