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

9 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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