Local electromechanical characterization of Pr doped BiFeO3 ceramics

Abstract

Local electromechanical (EM) measurements were performed in Pr doped BiFeO3 (BPFO) ceramics via piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM). The results revealed that local EM response was different from the macroscopic one due to the large contribution of the leakage current. The locally measured response was used to evaluate effective piezoelectric coefficient d33 of the material. The multi-frequency PFM mode with additional compensation of the cantilever-surface Coulomb interaction under application of the external DC bias provided the most accurate values of the effective d33 coefficient and allowed studying its surface distribution and residual depolarization field distribution across the surface of BPFO ceramics.