Figure 1: Complete mesoscopic topography/crystalline/electronic phase mapping of PSCMO.

(a) Resistivity of PSCMO versus temperature, for in- and out-of-plane directions (reproduced from ref. 19). Insets show the CO-OO patterns. (b) MIM response curve obtained by simulating the complex admittance between the MIM tip and a realistic model of the material. Resistivity of the different phases in the relevant temperature range is marked. (c) AFM topographic image of a 25 by 25 μm twinned region at 303 K. (d) MIM-Im and (e) MIM-Re images, which correspond to the imaginary and real part of tip–sample admittance at 1 GHz, of the same area. The contrast between the two charge-ordered phases is clear. The step edges appear in MIM images because the tip–sample admittance, especially the imaginary (capacitive) part, is perturbed at sharp topographic features. (f) Cross-polarized light microscopy image of the same area, showing optical anisotropy contrast. The fact that the two regions marked by the pink circle and yellow square in e and f have conductivity contrast, but no optical contrast immediately tells us that they are in different phases and have crystalline directions that differ by 90°. (g) Surface topography overlaid with crystal orientation and charge-order phases, deduced from c–f, indicated. Scale bars, 5 μm.