In situ characterization of domain structure and local elasticity in Nb-doped Bi4Ti3O12 ceramics by Scanning Probe Microscopy

The three-dimensional domain structure and the variation of local elasticity on Nb-doped Bi4Ti3O12 ceramics are imaged in situ by Scanning Probe Microscopy in piezoresponse mode and low frequency acoustic mode respectively. The domain pattern parallel to the a-b plane is that of 90° domain structure, while the domain pattern parallel to the c-axis is characteristic of the 180° domain structure. In acoustic mode, the 90° domain structures contribute strongly to the image contrast because of the ferroelastic behavior. However, the 180°domain patterns have little effect on it and the features observed do not correlate with the local elasticity.