The fabrication and characterization of PbTiO3 nanomesas realized on nanostructured SrRuO3/SrTiO3 templates

We report the fabrication of PbTiO(3) nanomesas down to 30 nm lateral size and 4 nm high on nanostructured SrRuO(3)/SrTiO(3) templates by off-axis radio frequency magnetron sputtering. The templates were prepared using a top-down lithography approach based on scanning tunneling microscopy. The growth rate of the PbTiO(3) nanomesas was found to decrease with increasing growth temperature as well as with shrinking template size. Piezoresponse force microscopy measurements for the PbTiO(3) nanomesas showed a strong increase in response with decreasing lateral size. A decrease of the coercive voltage was also observed for the same lateral size range. This laterally size-dependent behavior is attributed to reduction of in-plane strain, when shrinking the nanomesa lateral dimensions.