This paper reports an opto-actuable device fabricated using micro-machined silicon moulds. The actuating component of the device is made from a composite material containing carbon nanotubes (CNTs) embedded in a liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) matrix. We demonstrate the fabrication of a patterned LCE-CNT film by a combination of mechanical stretching and thermal cross-linking. The resulting poly-domain LCE-CNT film contains 'blister-shaped' mono-domain regions, which reversibly change their shape under light irradiation and hence can be used as dynamic Braille dots. We demonstrate that blisters with diameters of 1.0 and 1.5 mm, and wall thickness 300 μm, will mechanically contract under irradiation by a laser diode with optical power up to 60 mW. The magnitude of this contraction was up to 40 μm, which is more than 10% of their height in the 'rest' state. The stabilization time of the material is less than 6 s for both actuation and recovery. We also carried out preliminary tests on the repeatability of this photo-actuation process, observing no material or performance degradation. This manufacturing approach establishes a starting point for the design and fabrication of wide-area tactile actuators, which are promising candidates for the development of new Braille reading applications for the visually impaired.

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A liquid crystalline elastomer-carbon nanotube (LCE-CNT) composite displays a reversible shape change property in response to light. The development of some systems such as tactile devices requires localised actuation of this material. A method is reported that combines mechanical stretching and thermal crosslinking of an LCE-CNT for creating sufficiently well-aligned liquid crystal units to produce localised actuation. The method demonstrates that it is feasible to optically drive a LCE-CNT film within a localised area, since only the walls of the stretched parts of the film contain aligned LC domains.

For assessing tactile spatial resolution it has recently been recommended to use tactile acuity charts which follow the design principles of the Snellen letter charts for visual acuity and involve active touch. However, it is currently unknown whether acuity thresholds obtained with this newly developed psychophysical procedure are in accordance with established measures of tactile acuity that involve passive contact with fixed duration and control of contact force. Here we directly compared tactile acuity thresholds obtained with the acuity charts to traditional two-point and grating orientation thresholds in a group of young healthy adults. For this purpose, two types of charts, using either Braille-like dot patterns or embossed Landolt rings with different orientations, were adapted from previous studies. Measurements with the two types of charts were equivalent, but generally more reliable with the dot pattern chart. A comparison with the two-point and grating orientation task data showed that the test-retest reliability of the acuity chart measurements after one week was superior to that of the passive methods. Individual thresholds obtained with the acuity charts agreed reasonably with the grating orientation threshold, but less so with the two-point threshold that yielded relatively distinct acuity estimates compared to the other methods. This potentially considerable amount of mismatch between different measures of tactile acuity suggests that tactile spatial resolution is a complex entity that should ideally be measured with different methods in parallel. The simple test procedure and high reliability of the acuity charts makes them a promising complement and alternative to the traditional two-point and grating orientation thresholds.

Based on density functional theory, we show that Li andX (X=V, Nb and Ta) co-doping in 1Li:1X ratio broadens thecompositional freedom for significant piezoelectric enhancement in w-AlN, promising them to be good alternatives of expensive Sc. Interestingly, these co-doped w-AlN also show quite large spontaneous electric polarization about 0.80 C/m2 with the possibility of ferroelectric polarization switching, opening new possibilities in wurtzite nitrides. Increase in piezoelectric stress constant (e33) with decrease in elastic constant ( C33 ) results enhancement in piezoelectric strain constant ( d33 ), which is desired for improving the performance of resonators for high frequency RF signals. Also, these co-doped w-AlN are potential lead-free piezoelectric materials for energy harvesting and sensors as they improve the longitudinal electromechanical coupling constant (K^2 33), transverse piezoelectric strain constant (d31), and figure of merit for power generation. However, the enhancement in K^2 33 is not as pronounced as that in d33, because co-doping increases the dielectric constant. The longitudinal acoustic wave velocity (7.09 km/s) of Li0.1875Ta0.1875Al0.625N is quite comparable with that of commercially used piezoelectric LiNbO3 or LiTaO3 in special cuts (about 5~7 km/s) despite the fact that the acoustic wave velocities drop with co-doping or Sc concentration. File list (2)download file view on ChemRxiv codoped-AlN.pdf (0.93 MiB) download file view on ChemRxiv codoped-

A mass sensor based on thin-film bulk acoustic resonator, intended for biomolecular applications, is presented. The thin film is a ͑002͒ AlN membrane, sputtered over Ti/ Pt on a ͑001͒ Si wafer, and released by surface micromachining of silicon. Two experiments are proposed to test the mass sensing performance of the resonators: ͑a͒ distributed loading with a MgF 2 film by means of physical vapor deposition and ͑b͒ localized mass growing of a C / Pt/ Ga composite using focused-ion-beam-assisted deposition, both on the top electrode. For the distributed and localized cases, the minimum detectable mass changes are 1.58ϫ 10 −8 g/cm 2 and 7 ϫ 10 −15 g, respectively.

An all metal based electrostatic nanoelectromechanical switch has been fabricated using a one mask process. High temperature cycling behavior is demonstrated in a vacuum chamber at 300 °C for more than 28 hours. The compelling results indicate that the design is promising for the realization of rugged electronics with three-dimensional integration.

We report on a new approach for magnetic imaging, highly sensitive even in the presence of external, strong magnetic fields. Based on FIB-assisted fabricated high-aspect-ratio rare-earth nanomagnets, we produce groundbreaking magnetic force tips with hard magnetic character where we combine a high aspect ratio (shape anisotropy) together with strong crystalline anisotropy (rare-earth-based alloys). Rare-earth hard nanomagnets are then FIB-integrated to silicon microcantilevers as highly sharpened tips for high-field magnetic imaging applications. Force resolution and domain reversing and recovery capabilities are at least one order of magnitude better than for conventional magnetic tips. This work opens new, pioneering research fields on the surface magnetization process of nanostructures based either on relatively hard magnetic materials-used in magnetic storage media-or on materials like superparamagnetic particles, ferro/antiferromagnetic structures or paramagnetic materials.