Nanosecond switching of nanoscale ferroelectric domains in congruent single-crystal LiTaO₃ using scanning nonlinear dielectric microscopy

The domain switching characteristics of a congruent LiTaO₃ (CLT) single crystal are investigated mainly with respect to switching speed. It is found that fast nanosecond domain switching can be achieved by reducing the sample thickness, even for CLT, which has been thought to be unsuitable for high-speed switching. As an example, the authors successfully obtain a polarization inverted domain dot with a radius of 7.9 nm in a 60-nm-thick CLT plate by application of a 4ns, 10 V pulse. These results demonstrate that the speed of polarization reversal is closely related to the thickness of the medium.