No compositional variations of periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) (period of ~28 μm) are found using spatially resolved near edge X-ray adsorption fine structure (XANES) spectra taken at the Nb K-edge. The periodicity the ferroelectric domain patterns can be imaged using piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) and the periodic variations in the optical properties of PPLN result in a nonlinear optical response in the IR region at a fixed scattering angle.

Scanning probe microscopy (SPM) was used to probe piezoelectric vibrations and local conductivity in CaCu3Ti4O12(CCTO) ceramics at room temperature. Piezoelectric contrast was observed on the polished surfaces of CCTO in both vertical (out-of-plane) and lateral (in-plane) modes and depended on the grain orientation varying in sign and amplitude. The piezoelectric contrast is shown to be controlled by the electrical bias (local poling) and displayed a ferroelectric-like reversible hysteresis accompanied with a change of the phase of piezoelectric signal. Flexoelectric effect (strain-gradient-induced polarization) due to surface relaxation was invoked to explain the observed contrast inside the grains.

Epitaxial single-crystal films of La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 (100) having smooth surface morphology were deposited on SrTiO3 (100) substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). Electrical conductivity relaxation (ECR) measurements were carried out at elevated temperatures over a range of absolute oxygen pressures to determine the oxygen surface exchange coefficient. Steady-state conductivity data of the thin films show good agreement with the bulk material's properties. The values of the oxygen exchange coefficients (Kchem) are found to be similar for both oxidation and reduction process between 50 and 500 mTorr O2. The activation energy (Ea) of Kchem is 1.00±0.27 eV at temperatures above 600 °C and Kchem (T=612°C)≈1.2×10-6 cm/s.

Perovskite type oxide thin films have attracted a lot of attention, because they are essential materials which will be used for various electric devices such as ferroelectric random access memory (FeRAM) and tunable filter devices. When the materials are used for such capacitive devices, bottom electrode layers for oxide films are very important, since they significantly affect the crystallinity of the oxide films. Platinum (Pt) is one of the well known bottom electrode materials used for the oxide thin films. Pt provides also better nucleation sites for such perovskite materials due to small lattice misfit. Since dielectric properties of ferroelectric films are originated from the displacement of ions in a crystal along the c-axis direction, c-axis oriented ferroelectric thin films are required to attain better dielectric properties. (100) oriented Pt layers are required to attain c-axis oriented perovskite type ferroelectric films. In our previous report, we succeeded in preparing (100)-oriented Pt thin films with thickness of 20 nm on SiO2/Si substrate at substrate temperature Ts above 400 °C using MgO (100) buffer layers which deposited on Fe (100) seed layers. However, the growth of Pt(111) texture appeared when the thickness was increased from 20 nm to 100 nm, since (100) texture has relatively higher surface energy than (111) closely packed texture for Pt surface. It suggested that surface energy of the films changed during the deposition. In order to keep the surface energy, addition of O2 gas was performed during Pt deposition. Pt thin films with (100) preferred orientation with thickness above 100 nm were deposited on the (100) oriented MgO layer prepared on very thin seed Fe layers deposited on SiO2/Si substrates at Ts of 500 °C by facing-targets sputtering. It was also succeeded to attain (100) oriented perovskite oxide layer when they were deposited on the Pt(100)/Mg(100)/Fe/SiO2/Si underlayer.