Band Excitation Piezoresponse Force Microscopy of PbZrTiO3

400 nm thick (001)-oriented PbZr_0.2Ti_0.8O₃/30 nm Ba_0.5Sr_0.5RuO₃/NdScO₃ epitaxial thin films were grown using pulsed laser deposition. The films have been the subject of prior studies (<em>9</em>, <em>15</em>, <em>22</em>). These films exist in a typical tetragonal ferroelectric phase. NdScO₃ imposes a large tensile strain that drives a strain-induced spinodal instability driving a hierarchical <em>c/a/c/a</em> and <em>a₁/a₂/a₁/a₂</em> domain structure (<em>29</em>). These domains have large variations in piezoresponse and switching mechanisms. Within the primary out-of-plane polarized <em>c/a/c/a,</em> there is a large vertical piezoresponse and classical ferroelectric switching mechanisms. Conversely, there is suppressed vertical piezoresponse in the <em>a₁/a₂/a₁/a₂</em> domains. Since this material is at an energetic degeneracy between the <em>c</em>/<em>a</em>/<em>c</em>/<em>a</em> and <em>a₁</em>/<em>a₂</em>/<em>a₁</em>/<em>a_2,</em>applying bipolar-triangular switching waveforms results in a two-step, three-state ferroelastic switching process. The films topography has a sawtooth-like structure with an amplitude of ~4 nm and a periodicity of ~900 nm because of the tetragonality and large difference in crystallographic orientation of domain variants. Furthermore, the highly asymmetric elastic modulus tensor results in elastic modulus variations by up to 23%. Further details regarding the structure, properties, and switching mechanisms of this material can be obtained in prior reports (<em>9</em>, <em>15</em>, <em>22</em>). The hierarchical PbZr_0.2Ti_0.8O₃ provides a model system to stress test Band-excitation piezoresponse force microscopy (BE-PFM) due to the highly variable piezoresponse, switching mechanisms, and elastic modulus. The dataset used is an original creation of the authors, has been the subject of prior reports, and publicly released under the open-source creative commons attribution 4.0 License (<em>30</em>).厚度为400 nm的(001)取向PbZr₀.₂Ti₀.₈O₃/30 nm Ba₀.₅Sr₀.₅RuO₃/NdScO₃外延薄膜通过脉冲激光沉积法制备。该薄膜已被前期多项研究报道（9、15、22）。此类薄膜呈现典型的四方铁电相。NdScO₃衬底引入了大拉伸应变，诱发了应变驱动的旋节线不稳定性，进而形成分级的c/a/c/a与a₁/a₂/a₁/a₂畴结构（29）。这些畴结构的压电响应与翻转机制存在显著差异。在以面外极化为特征的c/a/c/a主畴中，存在较强的垂直压电响应与经典铁电翻转机制；与之相反，a₁/a₂/a₁/a₂畴的垂直压电响应受到抑制。由于该材料在c/a/c/a与a₁/a₂/a₁/a₂两种畴构型间处于能量简并态，施加双极性三角翻转波形会引发两步式三态铁弹性翻转过程。受畴变体的四方性与晶体学取向差异影响，薄膜的表面形貌呈现锯齿状结构，其振幅约为4 nm，周期约为900 nm。此外，高度不对称的弹性模量张量使得弹性模量的最大变化幅度可达23%。关于该材料的结构、物性与翻转机制的更多细节，可参阅前期相关研究报道（9、15、22）。具有分级畴结构的PbZr₀.₂Ti₀.₈O₃薄膜是一套用于测试宽带激发压电力显微镜（Band-excitation piezoresponse force microscopy, BE-PFM）性能的模型体系，因其压电响应、翻转机制与弹性模量均存在高度可变性。本数据集为作者原创，已见于前期研究报道，并依据开源知识共享署名4.0许可协议（30）公开发布。