Adsorbate Screening of Surface Charge of Microscopic Ferroelectric Domains in Sol-Gel PbZrTiO Thin Films.

We present a study of adsorbate screening of surface charge in microscopic ferroelectric domains in a sol-gel grown PbZrTiO thin film. Low-energy and photoemission electron microscopies were employed to characterize the temperature dependence of surface charge and polarization of ferroelectric domains written by atomic force microscopy. We study the role of charged adsorbates in screening of polarization-bound charges. We demonstrate that full-field electron microscopy is suitable for the determination of ferroelectric system properties such as the Curie temperature.