Grain size effect and local disorder in polycrystalline relaxors via scanning probe microscopy

Local piezoresponse of individual grains in polycrystalline Pb0.9125La0.0975(Zr0.65Ti0.35)0.976O3 (PLZT 9.75/65/35) relaxor ceramics is studied using the scanning probe microscopy (SPM) technique. The observed piezoelectric contrast consisting of irregular (labyrinth-type) polarization patterns is attributed to the compositional disorder and consequent charge imbalance caused by high La concentration. A measure of this disorder, the polarization correlation length ξ, is directly determined using an autocorrelation analysis function implemented in the SPM software. The analysis of the obtained images shows that ξ taken at the scale ~200 nm varies as a function of the position inside the grai…