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Strain engineering of piezoelectric properties of strontium titanate thin films

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Abstract

The in-plane and out-of-plane piezoelectric properties of (001) strontium titanate (SrTiO3, STO) epitaxial thin films on pseudo-cubic (001) substrates are computed as a function of in-plane misfit strain. A nonlinear thermodynamic model is employed, which takes into account the appropriate mechanical boundary conditions, the electromechanical coupling between the polarization and the in-plane lattice mismatch, and the self-strains of the ferroelastic and ferroelectric phase transformations. The piezoelectric behavior of epitaxial STO films is described in various strain-induced ferroelectric phase fields in a temperature range from −50 to 50 °C. The calculations show that by carefully tailoring in-plane misfit strains in both tensile and compressive ranges, piezoelectric coefficients that are of the order of prototypical lead zirconate titanate and other lead-based piezoceramics can be realized. These results indicate that strain engineered STO films may be employed in a variety of sensor and actuator applications as well as surface acoustic wave devices and thin-film bulk acoustic resonators.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support through a Phase II STTR grant from the Department of Defense, US Army Research Office. The authors also thank N. M. Sbrockey, G. S. Tompa, and T. S. Kalkur for many useful discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA

    F. Sun & S. P. Alpay

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Institute of Materials Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA

    H. Khassaf & S. P. Alpay

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  1. F. Sun
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Correspondence to S. P. Alpay.

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Sun, F., Khassaf, H. & Alpay, S.P. Strain engineering of piezoelectric properties of strontium titanate thin films. J Mater Sci 49, 5978–5985 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-014-8316-y

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