We have observed Electron Beam Induced Current imaging of thin film ferroelectrics. The Electron beam irradiation of a thin ferroelectric film creates a local temperatue gradient that induces a polarization gradient and therefore a local electric field. Although the temperature difference is small the gradient is on the order of thousands K/cm and results in a corresponding electric field of a few MV/cm. The thermally induced electric field drives the electron beam created dcarriers toward an electrode thus inducing an externally measurable current. Despite the very small carrier lift time (< 1 ns) in ferroelectrics, the induced electric field i sstrong enough to collect carriers from a few hundred nm depth before recombination. An EBIC gain of 5 to 20 was measured experimentally with BaTiO_3 and LiTaO_3 films on silicon substrates. This method is insensitive to charge traps and provides a resolution better than 1 um m.
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