The retention phenomena of purposely aligned micron-size domains (defined as "bits") in Pb(Zr,Ti)O_3 thin films were characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM) combined with a lock-in amplifier. It is found that the retention loss occurs by "region by region" showing local variation of the rat eof the loss. Furthermore, the total retention loss can be successfully described by an extended exponential decay, which implies a narrow distribution of the relaxation times of the domains. This probably comes from the fact that the micron-size bits consist a few hundreds of domains. Along with the characterization, the effects of the bit size and the poling time per unit area on the retention characteristics were investigated. Based on our observations, it is concluded that the retention time is proportional to both the poling time per unit area and the bit size. This trend is successfully explained by a kinetic model develoed by our group.
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