A Piezoelectric Evaluation System with Controlled Environment for Characterizations of Relaxor-PT Single Crystals with Engineered Nanodomains

The objective of this equipment proposal is to acquire an advanced piezoelectric evaluation system with the unprecedented capability for comprehensive dielectric and piezoelectric characterizations of relaxor-PT single crystals, ferroelectric bulk and thin film materials. The characterizations can be conducted under multimodal stimulus including electrical, mechanical, thermal, optical and acoustic fields at a broad range of temperature (-100 C- 600 C), frequency (up to MHz), electric field (+/- 10 kV, 2 mA), pre-stress(> 10 MPa), and time (aging). The in-situ optical characterization environment will also be fulfilled, for the first time, by integrating the optical microscope into this system. With this tool, nano-domain engineering of relaxor-PT piezoelectric single crystals can be advanced toward novel multimode naval sensing applications.