Controlling polarization dynamics in a liquid environment: From localized to macroscopic switching in ferroelectrics

The effect of disorder on polarization switching in ferroelectric materials is studied using piezoresponse force microscopy in a liquid environment. The spatial extent of the electric field created by a biased tip is controlled by the choice of medium, resulting in a transition from localized switching dictated by tip radius, to uniform switching across the film. In the localized regime, the formation of fractal domains has been observed with dimensionality controlled by the length scale of the frozen disorder. In the nonlocal regime, preferential nucleation at defect sites and the presence of long-range correlations has been observed.