VOLUME 6, NUMBER 3, MARCH 2006 © Copyright 2006 by the American Chemical Society
GHz Apertureless Near-Field Scanning Optical Microscopy of Ferroelectric Nanodomain Dynamics Hongzhou Ma and Jeremy Levy* UniVersity of Pittsburgh, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Pittsburgh, PennsylVania 15260 Received December 7, 2005; Revised Manuscript Received January 17, 2006
ABSTRACT Nanoscale domain dynamics of (Ba,Sr)TiO3 thin films are investigated at microwave frequencies with a home-developed GHz-frequency apertureless near-field scanning optical microscope (GHz-ANSOM). Using a microwave phase-modulation technique, we decoupled topographic artifacts from the optical signal, providing an enhanced and background-free temporal response. Interleaved acquisition of images taken at sequential time intervals provides amplitude and phase information about the electrooptic response at
