Piezo-generated charge mapping revealed through direct piezoelectric force microscopy.

While piezoelectric and ferroelectric materials play a key role in many everyday applications, there are still a number of open questions related to their physics. To enhance our understanding of piezoelectrics and ferroelectrics, nanoscale characterization is essential. Here, we develop an atomic force microscopy based mode that obtains a direct quantitative analysis of the piezoelectric coefficient d. We report nanoscale images of piezogenerated charge in a thick single crystal of periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN), a bismuth ferrite (BiFO) thin film, and lead zirconate titanate (PZT) by applying a force and recording the current produced by these materials. The quantification of d coefficients for PPLN (14 ± 3 pC per N) and BFO (43 ± 6 pC per N) is in agreement with the values reported in the literature. Even stronger evidence of the reliability of the method is provided by an equally accurate measurement of the significantly larger d of PZT.