Flexoelectricity, the coupling between electric polarization and strain gradients in dielectrics, attracts growing research interest because of its potential to replace/complement piezoelectricity in electromechanical applications. Thanks to the large dielectric permittivity, ferroelectrics exhibit enhanced flexoelectricity and usually serve as the functional ingredient in flexoelectric devices. However, ferroelectric flexoelectricity usually suffers from poor temperature stability, which adversely affects practical applications. In this work, compositional gradients are introduced into Ba1−xSrxTiO3 systems to enhance the temperature stability of flexoelectric behavior. Experimental results show that the drastic variations of flexoelectricity (up to 100 times) from 20 to 120 °C in single component ceramics (such as Ba0.67Sr0.33TiO3 and BaTiO3) can be significantly reduced in graded Ba1−xSrxTiO3 ceramics, in which the flexoelectric coefficient is in the range from 13 to 26 μC/m. The improved stability results from the engineered sequential Curie temperatures of individual layers in graded ceramics and the positive correlation between dielectric constant and flexoelectricity. Our work provides a method to enable the robust performance of flexoelectric devices in an ambient environment with large temperature fluctuations.
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21 August 2021
Research Article|
August 17 2021
Flexoelectricity in compositionally graded Ba1−xSrxTiO3 ceramics
Special Collection:
Trends in Flexoelectricity
X. Wen
;
X. Wen
1
State Key Laboratory for Strength and Vibration of Mechanical Structures, School of Aerospace Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University
, Xi’an 710049, China
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G. Yang
;
G. Yang
1
State Key Laboratory for Strength and Vibration of Mechanical Structures, School of Aerospace Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University
, Xi’an 710049, China
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Q. Ma;
Q. Ma
1
State Key Laboratory for Strength and Vibration of Mechanical Structures, School of Aerospace Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University
, Xi’an 710049, China
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Y. Tian;
Y. Tian
2
State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi’an Jiaotong University
, Xi’an 710049, China
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X. Liu;
X. Liu
1
State Key Laboratory for Strength and Vibration of Mechanical Structures, School of Aerospace Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University
, Xi’an 710049, China
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D. Xue
;
D. Xue
2
State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi’an Jiaotong University
, Xi’an 710049, China
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Q. Deng
;
Q. Deng
a)
1
State Key Laboratory for Strength and Vibration of Mechanical Structures, School of Aerospace Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University
, Xi’an 710049, China
a)Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: tonydqian@mail.xjtu.edu.cn and sshen@mail.xjtu.edu.cn
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S. Shen
S. Shen
a)
1
State Key Laboratory for Strength and Vibration of Mechanical Structures, School of Aerospace Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University
, Xi’an 710049, China
a)Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: tonydqian@mail.xjtu.edu.cn and sshen@mail.xjtu.edu.cn
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a)Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: tonydqian@mail.xjtu.edu.cn and sshen@mail.xjtu.edu.cn
Note: This paper is part of the Special Topic on Trends in Flexoelectricity.
J. Appl. Phys. 130, 074102 (2021)
Article history
Received:
April 09 2021
Accepted:
July 28 2021
Citation
X. Wen, G. Yang, Q. Ma, Y. Tian, X. Liu, D. Xue, Q. Deng, S. Shen; Flexoelectricity in compositionally graded Ba1−xSrxTiO3 ceramics. J. Appl. Phys. 21 August 2021; 130 (7): 074102. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0053667
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