Giant piezoelectricity in oxide thin films with nanopillar structure

Huajun Liu; Haijun Wu; Khuong Phuong Ong; Tiannan Yang; Ping Yang; Pranab Kumar Das; Xiao Chi; Yang Zhang; Caozheng Diao; Wai Kong Alaric Wong; Eh Piew Chew; Yi Fan Chen; Chee Kiang Ivan Tan; Andrivo Rusydi; Mark B H Breese; David J Singh; Long-Qing Chen; Stephen J Pennycook; Kui Yao

doi:10.1126/science.abb3209

Giant piezoelectricity in oxide thin films with nanopillar structure

Science. 2020 Jul 17;369(6501):292-297. doi: 10.1126/science.abb3209.

Authors

Huajun Liu^#¹, Haijun Wu^#², Khuong Phuong Ong³, Tiannan Yang⁴, Ping Yang^{2

5}, Pranab Kumar Das⁵, Xiao Chi⁶, Yang Zhang², Caozheng Diao⁵, Wai Kong Alaric Wong⁵, Eh Piew Chew⁵, Yi Fan Chen⁷, Chee Kiang Ivan Tan⁷, Andrivo Rusydi⁶, Mark B H Breese^{5

6}, David J Singh⁸, Long-Qing Chen⁴, Stephen J Pennycook², Kui Yao¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research), 138634 Singapore. [email protected] [email protected].
² Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National University of Singapore, 117575 Singapore.
³ Institute of High Performance Computing, A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research), 138632 Singapore.
⁴ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
⁵ Singapore Synchrotron Light Source (SSLS), National University of Singapore, 117603 Singapore.
⁶ Department of Physics, National University of Singapore, 117551 Singapore.
⁷ Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research), 138634 Singapore.
⁸ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 32675370
DOI: 10.1126/science.abb3209

Abstract

High-performance piezoelectric materials are critical components for electromechanical sensors and actuators. For more than 60 years, the main strategy for obtaining large piezoelectric response has been to construct multiphase boundaries, where nanoscale domains with local structural and polar heterogeneity are formed, by tuning complex chemical compositions. We used a different strategy to emulate such local heterogeneity by forming nanopillar regions in perovskite oxide thin films. We obtained a giant effective piezoelectric coefficient [Formula: see text] of ~1098 picometers per volt with a high Curie temperature of ~450°C. Our lead-free composition of sodium-deficient sodium niobate contains only three elements (Na, Nb, and O). The formation of local heterogeneity with nanopillars in the perovskite structure could be the basis for a general approach to designing and optimizing various functional materials.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.