Giant piezoelectricity in PMN-PT thin films: Beyond PZT

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) incorporating piezoelectric layers provide active transduction between electrical and mechanical energy, which enables highly sensitive sensors and low-voltage driven actuators surpassing the passive operation of electrostatic MEMS. Several different piezoelectr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inMRS bulletin Vol. 37; no. 11; pp. 1022 - 1029
Main Authors Baek, Seung-Hyub, Rzchowski, Mark S., Aksyuk, Vladimir A.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York, USA Cambridge University Press 01.11.2012
Springer International Publishing
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Actuators
Applied and Technical Physics
Characterization and Evaluation of Materials
Energy harvesting
Energy Materials
Ferroelectricity
Heterostructures
Lead zirconate titanates
Materials Engineering
Materials Science
Microelectromechanical systems
Nanoelectromechanical systems
Nanotechnology
Piezoelectricity
Single crystals
Thin films
Thin-film piezoelectric MEMS
Zirconium
microelectro-mechanical (MEMS)
ferroelectric
piezoelectric
epitaxy
Thin film
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Summary:Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) incorporating piezoelectric layers provide active transduction between electrical and mechanical energy, which enables highly sensitive sensors and low-voltage driven actuators surpassing the passive operation of electrostatic MEMS. Several different piezoelectric materials have been successfully integrated into MEMS structures, most notably Pb(Zr,Ti)O3. Piezoelectric materials with larger piezoelectric response, such as the relaxor ferroelectric Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3(PMN-PT), would enable further miniaturization. However, this has long been hampered by the difficulties in the synthesis of these materials. This article reviews recent successes not only in synthesizing high-quality epitaxial PMN-PT heterostructures on Si, but also in fabricating PMN-PT microcantilevers, which retain the piezoelectric properties of bulk PMN-PT single crystals. These epitaxial heterostructures provide a platform to build MEMS and nanoelectromechanical system devices that function with large displacement at low drive voltages, such as ultrasound medical imagers, micro-fluidic control, piezotronics, and energy harvesting.
ISSN:0883-7694
1938-1425
DOI:10.1557/mrs.2012.266