Sensors and actuators based on piezoelectric ceramics are finding an increasingly large variety of applications under a very wide range of environmental conditions and applied signals. Some actuator applications require the piezoelectric materials to support large mechanical loads and produce high strain output. In order to accomplish this requirement of higher strains, large electric fields mu...

The active vibration control of laminated composite plates using distributed piezoelectric sensors and actuators (Fig. 1) is studied numerically with a higher-order finite element method (FEM). Reddy’s simplified higher-order theory for transverse shear deformation, which is found to be much more accurate for both thin and thick composite plates as compared with other theories, is employed for ...

The usefulness of most high technology devices such as cell phones, computers, and sensors is limited by the storage capacity of batteries. In the future, these limitations will become more pronounced as the demand for wireless power outpaces battery development which is already nearly optimized. Thus, new power generation techniques are required for the next generation of wearable computers, w...

Piezoelectric optical scanner is developed for multi-coordinate control of optical laser beam. Such type of optomicro-mechanical systems can be used for accurate angular or linear deflection of optical elements in various optomechanical and optoelectronic systems. The operating principle of these devices is based on piezoelectric effect and on conversion of high-frequency multi-dimensional mech...

Piezoelectric composites are a class of functional materials consisting of piezoelectric active materials and non-piezoelectric passive polymers, mechanically attached together to form different connectivities. These composites have several advantages compared to conventional piezoelectric ceramics and polymers, including improved electromechanical properties, mechanical flexibility and the abi...

We report the piezoelectric properties of ZnO nanowires (NWs) obtained by using a nanoindenter with a conductive boron-doped diamond tip. The direct piezoelectric effect was measured by performing nanoindentations under load control, and the generated piezoelectric voltage was characterized as a function of the applied loads in the range 0.2-6 mN. The converse piezoelectric effect was measured ...

Piezoelectric nanocomposites represent a unique class of materials that synergize the advantageous features of polymers and piezoelectric nanostructures and have attracted extensive attention for the applications of energy harvesting and self-powered sensing recently. Currently, most of the piezoelectric nanocomposites were synthesized using piezoelectric nanostructures with relatively low piez...

Despite the significant potential of organic piezoelectric materials in the electro-mechanical or mechano-electrical applications that require light and flexible material properties, the intrinsically low piezoelectric performance as compared to traditional inorganic materials has limited their full utilization. In this study, we demonstrate that dimensional reduction of poly(vinylidene fluorid...

Wurtzite structures, such as ZnO, GaN, InN and CdS, are piezoelectric semiconductor materials. A piezopotential is formed in the crystal by the piezoelectric charges created by applying a stress. The inner-crystal piezopotential can effectively tune/control the carrier separations and transport processes at the vicinity of a p–n junction or metal–semiconductor contact, which is called the piezo...

We propose a novel design of photonic-crystal nanobeam cavities in lithium niobate (LN) for both TE and TM modes, addressing problems associated with tilted sidewalls, which commonly result from dry etching. Using optimized periodical nano-groove structures, the proposed devices could achieve quality factors as high as 3.9×10(6) with a modal volume of 5.0 (λ/n)3. We also show that such a design...