Electric fields and surface charge in a thin-film ferroelectric-dielectric switchable structure that were determined with a spectral probe

Abstract

A new method is proposed to study the macroscopic ac fields in the elements of thin-film ferroelectric-dielectric heterostructures during their electric switching. For this purpose, the local field surrounding dielectric molecules is measured. It is important that the dielectric has a characteristic very narrow molecular absorption band, which is used as an electric-field probe. The heterostructure under study consists of a glass substrate, a transparent electrode, a 170-nm-thick layer of polymer ferroelectric, a 40-nm-thick dielectric layer, and a semitransparent electrode. Both functional layers are grown by the Langmuir-Blodgett method. An ac electric field is applied to the electrodes, and the local field having appeared in the dielectric is measured by the electroabsorption method. With allowance for the Lorentz factor, the local field is easily converted into the macroscopic field in the dielectric layer and, then, in the ferroelectric layer. The classical Sawyer-Tower scheme is used as an additional tool to determine the surface charge to be switched at the dielectric-ferroelectric interface.