  Scanning Probe Microscopy is used to study and quantify the nanoscale
electric phenomena in the two classes of oxide systems, namely transport at
electroactive grain boundaries and surface behavior of ferroelectric materials.
Scanning Impedance Microscopy is developed to study the capacitance and local
C-V characteristic of the interfaces combining the spatial resolution of
traditional SPMs with the precision of conventional electrical measurements.
SPM of SrTiO3 grain boundaries in conjunction with variable temperature
impedance spectroscopy and I-V measurements allowed to find and theoretically
justify the effect of field suppression of dielectric constant in the vicinity
of the electroactive interfaces in strontium titanate. Similar approaches were
used to study ferroelectric properties and ac and dc transport behavior in a
number of polycrystalline oxides.
  In the second part, the effects of local charge density on the chemistry and
physics of ferroelectric surfaces are studied. The kinetics and thermodynamics
parameters of adsorption are assessed by variable temperature SPM.
Piezoresponse force microscopy is used to engineer domain patterns on
ferroelectric surfaces. Localized photochemical activity of ferroelectric
surfaces is explored as a new tool for metallic nanostructures fabrication.
