Research plan

First year

  1. Development of the method for bismuth ferrite films creation the controllable thickness.
  2. Development of an optimal approach for calibration of the cantilever sensitivity.
  3. Theoretical calculation of the spectrum of cantilever acoustic vibrations for taking into account the cantilever dynamics contribution into the measured piezoelectric response.
  4. Experimental and theoretical study of electrostatic interaction tip-sample taking into account the presence of surface dielectric layers.
  5. Computer modeling of the spatial distribution of electric field in the model ferroelectric single crystals of lithium niobate in the vicinity of AFM tip taking into account the presence of dielectric layers and the verification of the model by confocal Raman microscope.
  6. Development of the approach for determination of piezoelectric tensor components by the simulation of angular dependences of piezoelectric response in model single crystals in the uniform field approximation.

Second year

  1. Development of the method for diphenylalanine film creation with the controllable thickness.
  2. Experimental investigation and computer modeling of the effects of the mechanical interaction between probe and material under the action of the converse piezoelectric effect (dependence on the stiffness)
  3. Investigation of the surface dielectric layers in the model single crystals by means of the different structural and functional methods
  4. Modeling of the angle dependences of the vertical and lateral piezoelectric response in the non-uniform electric field including consideration of the probe shape, the influence of the surface layers and water meniscus (under wet atmosphere)
  5. Modeling of the spatial distribution of the electric field creating by the AFM tip in the objects with confined size
  6. Investigation of the intrinsic size effect in thin-film bismuth ferrite and diphenylalanine

Third year

  1. Development of the method for the local measurements of the dielectric permittivity in the nanosized materials
  2. Investigation of the intrinsic size effect in the nanoparticles of bismuth ferrite and nanotubes of the diphenylalanine
  3. Investigations of the surface dielectric layer contribution to the value of the dielectric permittivity and piezoelectric response reduction caused by the decrease of the object size
  4. Derivation of the approximate analytical solution for the piezoelectric response in the anisotropic material under the action of the non-uniform electric field
  5. Development of the approach for the determination of the piezoelectric coefficient from the vertical and lateral piezoelectric response data based on the computer modeling and analytical solutions
  6. Modeling of the piezoelectric response taking in the consideration confinement of the object size and analysis of the piezoelectric coefficient scaling in the confined objects