Small-scale piezoelectric devices: Pyroelectric contributions to the piezoelectric response

Abstract

The recent trend in miniaturization of piezoelectrically active devices is driving research on size effects of these functional materials under reduced length scales. In this paper, we measure and model the generation of charge in thin piezoelectric structures under sinusoidal hydrostatic pressure and show how the subsequent thermally induced pyroelectric effect dominates the response in the smallest samples. We calculate the temperature profiles through the lead zirconate titanate structures, and determine the pyroelectric coefficient in these materials to be p′=0.28±0.02 mC m−2 K−1. The analysis of the piezoelectric and pyroelectric charge response described in this paper has significant impact on the design and fundamental functional behavior of small-scale piezoelectric devices.

Nanostructured p‐n Junctions for Kinetic‐to‐Electrical Energy Conversion

“…Hence this relationship between photoconductivity and output voltage provides further evidence that the observed behavior arises from piezoelectric effects. It should be noted that any contribution to the total measured charge from the pyroelectric response is expected to be negligible because nanorods in these samples were fully encapsulated in a polymer matrix 27…”

Nano/microscale pyroelectric energy harvesting: challenges and opportunities

“…It finds applications in large area detectors for laser pulse monitoring and also single element devices such as intruder alarms. Large PVDF thin films are available commercially at low cost for use in detectors [23,32,35,36]. Table 1.…”