Large piezoelectric strain with ultra-low strain hysteresis in highly c-axis oriented Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 films with columnar growth on amorphous glass substrates

Abstract

Thin films of PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3 (PZT) with largely detached columnar grains, deposited by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on amorphous glass substrates covered with Ca2Nb3O10 nanosheets as growth template and using LaNiO3 electrode layers, are shown to exhibit very high unipolar piezoelectric strain and ultra-low strain hysteresis. The observed increase of the piezoelectric coefficient with increasing film thickness is attributed to the reduction of clamping, because of the increasingly less dense columnar microstructure (more separation between the grains) with across the film thickness. A very large piezoelectric coefficient (490 pm/V) and a high piezoelectric strain (~0.9%) are obtained in 4-µm-thick film under an applied electric field of 200 kV/cm, which is several times larger than in usual PZT ceramics. Further very low strain hysteresis (H≈2–4%) is observed in 4 to 5 µm thick films. These belong to the best values demonstrated so far in piezoelectric films. Fatigue testing shows that the piezoelectric properties are stable up to 1010 cycles. The growth of high quality PZT films with very large strain and piezoelectric coefficients, very low hysteresis and with long-term stability on a technologically important substrate as glass is of great significance for the development of practical piezo driven microelectromechanical actuator systems.

Influence of deposition conditions on self-assembled growth of Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ nanorods by pulsed laser deposition at elevated oxygen pressure

“…Nguyen et al recently reported the growth of nanorod-like columnar PZT films by rapid PLD using a high laser repetition rate. 15), 16) The fabricated nanorods exhibited an enhanced piezoelectric response similar to those observed in previous studies on FIBnanorods.…”

Printing two-dimensional gallium phosphate out of liquid metal

“…Furthermore, in a large number of 2D systems studied to date, the piezoelectricity is confined within the in-plane piezoelectric polarisations, excluding out-of-plane operation of 2D devices 6 , 7 . This largely impedes the application of 2D piezoelectric materials in certain nano-electromechanical systems, where out of plane piezoelectric constant ( d 33 ) is one of the important key factors 9 . The separation of flexoelectric and piezoelectric components of d 33 is also challenging 10 .…”

Design, modeling, and analysis of a high performance piezoelectric energy harvester for intelligent tires

“…In contrast, PZT has desirable resistance and tolerance to high temperature but lower strain limit. Among PZT ceramics, the soft PZT (PZT‐5H) can tolerate the maximum strain of 0.175%; however, the ordinary PZT has lower strain level of 0.11%, and the hard PZT (PZT‐8) has the lowest strain level of 0.105% . The maximum longitudinal strain in tire inner surface is reported to be about 0.3%; therefore, the strain of the adhesive layer would be about 0.075% (25% of the tire strain).…”