TY - JOUR
T1 - Transparent ferroelectric crystals with ultrahigh piezoelectricity
AU - Qiu, Chaorui
AU - Wang, Bo
AU - Zhang, Nan
AU - Zhang, Shujun
AU - Liu, Jinfeng
AU - Walker, David
AU - Wang, Yu
AU - Tian, Hao
AU - Shrout, Thomas R.
AU - Xu, Zhuo
AU - Chen, Long Qing
AU - Li, Fei
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.
PY - 2020/1/16
Y1 - 2020/1/16
N2 - Transparent piezoelectrics are highly desirable for numerous hybrid ultrasound–optical devices ranging from photoacoustic imaging transducers to transparent actuators for haptic applications1–7. However, it is challenging to achieve high piezoelectricity and perfect transparency simultaneously because most high-performance piezoelectrics are ferroelectrics that contain high-density light-scattering domain walls. Here, through a combination of phase-field simulations and experiments, we demonstrate a relatively simple method of using an alternating-current electric field to engineer the domain structures of originally opaque rhombohedral Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 (PMN-PT) crystals to simultaneously generate near-perfect transparency, an ultrahigh piezoelectric coefficient d33 (greater than 2,100 picocoulombs per newton), an excellent electromechanical coupling factor k33 (about 94 per cent) and a large electro-optical coefficient γ33 (approximately 220 picometres per volt), which is far beyond the performance of the commonly used transparent ferroelectric crystal LiNbO3. We find that increasing the domain size leads to a higher d33 value for the [001]-oriented rhombohedral PMN-PT crystals, challenging the conventional wisdom that decreasing the domain size always results in higher piezoelectricity8–10. This work presents a paradigm for achieving high transparency and piezoelectricity by ferroelectric domain engineering, and we expect the transparent ferroelectric crystals reported here to provide a route to a wide range of hybrid device applications, such as medical imaging, self-energy-harvesting touch screens and invisible robotic devices.
AB - Transparent piezoelectrics are highly desirable for numerous hybrid ultrasound–optical devices ranging from photoacoustic imaging transducers to transparent actuators for haptic applications1–7. However, it is challenging to achieve high piezoelectricity and perfect transparency simultaneously because most high-performance piezoelectrics are ferroelectrics that contain high-density light-scattering domain walls. Here, through a combination of phase-field simulations and experiments, we demonstrate a relatively simple method of using an alternating-current electric field to engineer the domain structures of originally opaque rhombohedral Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 (PMN-PT) crystals to simultaneously generate near-perfect transparency, an ultrahigh piezoelectric coefficient d33 (greater than 2,100 picocoulombs per newton), an excellent electromechanical coupling factor k33 (about 94 per cent) and a large electro-optical coefficient γ33 (approximately 220 picometres per volt), which is far beyond the performance of the commonly used transparent ferroelectric crystal LiNbO3. We find that increasing the domain size leads to a higher d33 value for the [001]-oriented rhombohedral PMN-PT crystals, challenging the conventional wisdom that decreasing the domain size always results in higher piezoelectricity8–10. This work presents a paradigm for achieving high transparency and piezoelectricity by ferroelectric domain engineering, and we expect the transparent ferroelectric crystals reported here to provide a route to a wide range of hybrid device applications, such as medical imaging, self-energy-harvesting touch screens and invisible robotic devices.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41586-019-1891-y
DO - 10.1038/s41586-019-1891-y
M3 - Article
C2 - 31942055
AN - SCOPUS:85077941369
SN - 0028-0836
VL - 577
SP - 350
EP - 354
JO - Nature
JF - Nature
IS - 7790
ER -