Nature Communications (May 2021)

Alkali-deficiency driven charged out-of-phase boundaries for giant electromechanical response

  • Haijun Wu,
  • Shoucong Ning,
  • Moaz Waqar,
  • Huajun Liu,
  • Yang Zhang,
  • Hong-Hui Wu,
  • Ning Li,
  • Yuan Wu,
  • Kui Yao,
  • Turab Lookman,
  • Xiangdong Ding,
  • Jun Sun,
  • John Wang,
  • Stephen J. Pennycook

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23107-x
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 1
pp. 1 – 8

Abstract

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Phase boundary engineering through chemical alloying and phase control is a traditional approach to enhancing piezoelectric properties. Here, the authors design a strategy in alkali niobate films, utilizing alkali vacancies without alloying to form nanopillars enclosed.