[57] Formation of locally crystallized ferroelectric poly(vinylidene fluoride-ran-trifluoroethylene) nanodots based on heated atomic force microscopy

We demonstrate locally crystallized ferroelectric poly(vinylidene fluoride-ran-trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE)) nanodots in a noncrystallized 10 nm thick P(VDF-TrFE) thin film using heated atomic force microscopy (h-AFM). Joule heating of the AFM tip made it possible to form crystallized P(VDF-TrFE) nanodots with a size ranging from 40 to 250 nm. Piezoresponse force microscopy was used to characterize the ferroelectric properties of the crystalline P(VDF-TrFE) nanodots. The ferroelectric bit sizes of the P(VDF-TrFE) nanodots were strongly depending on the tip heating bias and time while the ferroelectric bit size of the crystallized ferroelectric P(VDF-TrFE) thin film was directly proportional to the magnitude of the ferroelectric switching bias.