title: Surface morphology induced localized electric field and piezoresponse enhancement in nanostructured thin films.
abstract: Nanostructured piezoelectric and ferroelectric thin films are being increasingly used in sensing and actuating microdevices. In this work, we report the experimental discovery of localized electric field enhancement in nanocolumnar piezoelectric thin films and its significant impact on piezoresponse. The magnitude of electric field enhancement is associated with nonflat surface morphologies and is in agreement with theoretical and finite element models. The influence of this surface morphology induced enhancement on piezoresponse is demonstrated using phase field simulations, which also illustrates surface morphology induced strain enhancement. The observed enhancement can be effectively harnessed to improve the sensitivity of related piezoelectric thin film applications.
authors.affiliation: Microplatforms Research Group and Platform Technologies Research Institute, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT University, GPO Box 2476, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia. sharath.sriram@rmit.edu.au
authors.forename: Sharath
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sriram
authors.forename: Madhu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bhaskaran
authors.forename: Rajeev
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ahluwalia
authors.forename: Thach G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.forename: Nathaniel
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ng
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Srolovitz
authors.forename: Kourosh
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kalantar-Zadeh
authors.forename: Arnan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mitchell
mesh_terms: D004560:Electricity; D020342:Finite Element Analysis; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*; D013499:Surface Properties