Local surface potential distribution and its relaxation in ferroelectric poly(vinylidenefluoride-co-trifluoroethylene) thin films

Abstract

Local surface potential distributions and their relaxation behavior in ferroelectric poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-trifluoroethylene) thin films were investigated using Kelvin-probe force microscopy. All surface potentials were negative regardless of the sign of the applied voltage because of the intrinsic negative charges that originated from the self-aligned region of dipoles at the ferroelectric/electrode interface. Importantly, the intrinsic charges would have a remarkable influence on the reliability of written data. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4734870]