Microscopic piezoelectric behavior of clamped and membrane (001) PMN-30PT thin films

A. Brewer, S. Lindemann, B. Wang, W. Maeng, J. Frederick, F. Li, Y. Choi, P. J. Thompson, J. W. Kim, T. Mooney, V. Vaithyanathan, D. G. Schlom, M. S. Rzchowski, L. Q. Chen, P. J. Ryan, C. B. Eom

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

Bulk single-crystal relaxor-ferroelectrics, like Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 (PMN-PT), are widely known for their large piezoelectricity. This is attributed to polarization rotation, which is facilitated by the presence of various crystal symmetries for compositions near a morphotropic phase boundary. Relaxor-ferroelectric thin films, which are necessary for low-voltage applications, suffer a reduction in their piezoelectric response due to clamping by the passive substrate. To understand the microscopic behavior of this adverse phenomenon, we employ the AC electric field driven in-operando synchrotron x-ray diffraction on patterned device structures to investigate the piezoelectric domain behavior under an electric field for both a clamped (001) PMN-PT thin film on Si and a (001) PMN-PT membrane released from its substrate. In the clamped film, the substrate inhibits the field-induced rhombohedral (R) to tetragonal (T) phase transition resulting in a reversible R to Monoclinic (M) transition with a reduced longitudinal piezoelectric coefficient d33 < 100 pm/V. Releasing the film from the substrate results in recovery of the R to T transition and results in a d33 > 1000 pm/V. Using diffraction with spatial mapping, we find that lateral constraints imposed by the boundary between the active and inactive materials also inhibit the R to T transition. Phase-field calculations on both clamped and released PMN-PT thin films simulate our experimental findings. Resolving the suppression of thin film piezoelectric response is critical to their application in piezo-driven technologies.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number202903
JournalApplied Physics Letters
Volume119
Issue number20
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 15 2021

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

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