Synergetic role of strain relaxation and photoexcitation for enhanced nanoscale piezoelectricity in freestanding <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>BaTiO</mml:mi> <mml:
Strain engineering has emerged as a strategic approach for modulating the piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties of thin films. We investigated local piezoelectric properties in clamped and freestanding epitaxial BaTi O 3 films via piezoresponse force microscopy. The freestanding membrane exhibits...