Preface to special topic: Piezoresponse force microscopy and nanoscale phenomena in polar materials

The 2012 special issue of the Journal of Applied Physics contains the selected papers from the 10th International Conference on Piezoresponse Force Microscopy and Nanoscale Phenomena in Polar Materials held in Vancouver, Canada, in conjunction with the 20th IEEE International Symposium on Application of Ferroelectrics (ISAF), from 24 to 27 of July, 2011. A set of work explores the domain structures in the ferroelectric thin films and crystals in materials such as PbTiO ₃ and BiFeO ₃, both exemplifying imaging possibilities of the ferroelectric domain structures and providing deep insight into physics of ferroelectric domain. The contribution from the University of Groningen group addresses the novel transport behaviors enabled by ferroelectric domain walls and critically analyses the role of polarization discontinuities and oxygen vacancy dynamics on these phenomena. Chen and colleagues explore the role of surface screening on domain dynamics.