Origin of giant electric-field-induced strain in faulted alkali niobate films

Moaz Waqar, Haijun Wu, Khuong Phuong Ong, Huajun Liu, Changjian Li, Ping Yang, Wenjie Zang, Weng Heng Liew, Caozheng Diao, Shibo Xi, David J. Singh, Qian He, Kui Yao (), Stephen J. Pennycook () and John Wang ()
Additional contact information
Moaz Waqar: National University of Singapore
Haijun Wu: Xi’an Jiaotong University
Khuong Phuong Ong: A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research)
Huajun Liu: A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research)
Changjian Li: National University of Singapore
Ping Yang: National University of Singapore
Wenjie Zang: National University of Singapore
Weng Heng Liew: A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research)
Caozheng Diao: National University of Singapore
Shibo Xi: A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research)
David J. Singh: University of Missouri
Qian He: National University of Singapore
Kui Yao: A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research)
Stephen J. Pennycook: National University of Singapore
John Wang: National University of Singapore

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract A large electromechanical response in ferroelectrics is highly desirable for developing high-performance sensors and actuators. Enhanced electromechanical coupling in ferroelectrics is usually obtained at morphotropic phase boundaries requiring stoichiometric control of complex compositions. Recently it was shown that giant piezoelectricity can be obtained in films with nanopillar structures. Here, we elucidate its origin in terms of atomic structure and demonstrate a different system with a greatly enhanced response. This is in non-stoichiometric potassium sodium niobate epitaxial thin films with a high density of self-assembled planar faults. A giant piezoelectric coefficient of ∼1900 picometer per volt is demonstrated at 1 kHz, which is almost double the highest ever reported effective piezoelectric response in any existing thin films. The large oxygen octahedral distortions and the coupling between the structural distortion and polarization orientation mediated by charge redistribution at the planar faults enable the giant electric-field-induced strain. Our findings demonstrate an important mechanism for realizing the unprecedentedly giant electromechanical coupling and can be extended to many other material functions by engineering lattice faults in non-stoichiometric compositions.

Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31630-8 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-31630-8

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31630-8

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().