Tuning Piezoelectricity via Thermal Annealing at a Freestanding Ferroelectric Membrane

Lu Han; Xinrui Yang; Yingzhuo Lun; Yue Guan; Futao Huang; Shuhao Wang; Jiangfeng Yang; Chenyi Gu; Zheng-Bin Gu; Lisha Liu; Yaojin Wang; Peng Wang; Jiawang Hong; Xiaoqing Pan; Yuefeng Nie

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c00096

Tuning Piezoelectricity via Thermal Annealing at a Freestanding Ferroelectric Membrane

Nano Lett. 2023 Apr 12;23(7):2808-2815. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c00096. Epub 2023 Mar 24.

Authors

Lu Han^{1

2}, Xinrui Yang^{1

2}, Yingzhuo Lun³, Yue Guan^{1

2}, Futao Huang^{1

2}, Shuhao Wang⁴, Jiangfeng Yang^{1

2}, Chenyi Gu^{1

2}, Zheng-Bin Gu^{1

2}, Lisha Liu⁴, Yaojin Wang⁴, Peng Wang^{1

2

5}, Jiawang Hong³, Xiaoqing Pan^{6

7

8}, Yuefeng Nie^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Artificial Functional Materials, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, People's Republic of China.
² Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, People's Republic of China.
³ School of Aerospace Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, People's Republic of China.
⁴ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.
⁵ Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, U.K.
⁶ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, California 92697, United States.
⁷ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Irvine, California 92697, United States.
⁸ Irvine Materials Research Institute, University of California, Irvine, California 92697, United States.

PMID: 36961344
DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c00096

Abstract

Tuning the ferroelectric domain structure by a combination of elastic and electrostatic engineering provides an effective route for enhanced piezoelectricity. However, for epitaxial thin films, the clamping effect imposed by the substrate does not allow aftergrowth tuning and also limits the electromechanical response. In contrast, freestanding membranes, which are free of substrate constraints, enable the tuning of a subtle balance between elastic and electrostatic energies, giving new platforms for enhanced and tunable functionalities. Here, highly tunable piezoelectricity is demonstrated in freestanding PbTiO₃ membranes, by varying the ferroelectric domain structures from c-dominated to c/a and a domains via aftergrowth thermal treatment. Significantly, the piezoelectric coefficient of the c/a domain structure is enhanced by a factor of 2.5 compared with typical c domain PbTiO₃. This work presents a new strategy to manipulate the piezoelectricity in ferroelectric membranes, highlighting their great potential for nano actuators, transducers, sensors and other NEMS device applications.

Keywords: ferroelectric perovskite oxide; freestanding complex oxide; lead titanate (PbTiO3); molecular beam epitaxy; piezoelectric.