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All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

DOE OSTI2024

Electrical de-poling and re-poling of relaxor-PbTiO 3 piezoelectric single crystals without heat treatment

Re-poling of unexpected partially depoled piezoelectric materials conventionally needs to be first fully depoled through annealing above their Curie temperature to revive piezoelectric performances. Here, we investigated de-poling and re-poling of Pb(In 1/2 Nb 1/2 )O 3 -Pb(Mg 1/3 Nb 2/3 )O 3 -PbTiO 3 single crystals under electric fields at room temperature. We found that alternating current electric fields with amplitudes near the coercive field at low frequencies (<10 Hz) can be employed to successfully depolarize poled crystals at room temperature. We also demonstrated a reversible polarization switching process with a relaxor-PbTiO 3 single crystal ultrasound transducer without device performance degradations. This experimental observation is supported by phase-field simulation, showing that alternating current electric fields can readily induce de-poling at room temperature, while direct current electric fields induce a transient depoled state only within an uncontrollable short period of time. The findings suggest new strategies for unprecedented in-device tailoring of the polarization states of ferroelectric materials.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

NASA NTRS1992

Active vibrations and noise control for turboprop application research program activities

The objectives of this work include the following: (1) development of active noise control techniques to alleviate inefficiencies and drawbacks of passive noise control approach especially at low frequencies; (2) reduction of structurally radiated noise applying external forces to the vibrating structure by means of force actuators made of piezoelectric material; and (3) reduction of fuselage vibration levels in propeller driven aircraft by means of distributed piezoelectric actuators that are actively controlled.

Paonessa, A.↗

NASA NTRS2003

Software for Testing Electroactive Structural Components

A computer program generates a graphical user interface that, in combination with its other features, facilitates the acquisition and preprocessing of experimental data on the strain response, hysteresis, and power consumption of a multilayer composite-material structural component containing one or more built-in sensor(s) and/or actuator(s) based on piezoelectric materials. This program runs in conjunction with Lab-VIEW software in a computer-controlled instrumentation system. For a test, a specimen is instrumented with appliedvoltage and current sensors and with strain gauges. Once the computational connection to the test setup has been made via the LabVIEW software, this program causes the test instrumentation to step through specified configurations. If the user is satisfied with the test results as displayed by the software, the user activates an icon on a front-panel display, causing the raw current, voltage, and strain data to be digitized and saved. The data are also put into a spreadsheet and can be plotted on a graph. Graphical displays are saved in an image file for future reference. The program also computes and displays the power and the phase angle between voltage and current.

Moses, Robert W.↗

NASA NTRS2014

Development Status of Adjustable X-Ray Optics with 0.5 Arcsecond Resolution

We report on the continuing development of adjustable, grazing incidence X-ray optics for 0.5 arcsec telescopes. Adjustable X-ray optics offer the potential for achieving sub-arcsecond imaging resolution while sufficiently thin and light-weight to constitute a mirror assembly with several square meters collecting area. The adjustable mirror concept employs a continuous thin film of piezoelectric material deposited on the back of the paraboloid and hyperboloid mirror segments. Individually addressable electrodes on the piezoelectric layer allow the introduction of deformations in localized "cells" which are used to correct mirror figure errors resulting from fabrication, mounting and aligning the thin mirrors, residual gravity release and temperature changes. We describe recent results of this development. These include improving cell yield to approx. 100 per cent, measurements of hysteresis and stability, comparisons of modeled and measured behavior, simulations of mirror performance, and the development and testing of conical Wolter- I mirror segments. We also present our plans going forward toward the eventual goal of achieving TRL 6 prior to the 2020 Decadal Review.

Reid, P. B.↗

DOE OSTI2020

Systems, devices, and methods for contact measurement and modulation of material properties

Materials and devices are provided for the sensing and manipulation of biomechanical and physiochemical properties of tissues or tissue surfaces. Examples of use include soft tissues such as skin or adipose tissues or more dense tissues such as muscle or heart or dense tissues such as bone. The materials and devices provide for in vivo measurements of biomechanical properties at the tissue surface, e.g. near surface regions of the epidermis or dermis or underlying structures. The devices can be non-invasive and/or non-destructive to the material and, especially for the biomaterials, can be biocompatible and/or biodegradable. The materials and devices can use ultrathin, stretchable networks of mechanical actuators and sensors constructed with nanoribbons of piezoelectric materials.

Dagdeviren, Canan↗

DOE OSTI2020

Giant piezoelectricity in oxide thin films with nanopillar structure

High-performance piezoelectric materials are critical components for electromechanical sensors and actuators. For more than 60 years, the main strategy for obtaining large piezoelectric response has been to construct multiphase boundaries, where nanoscale domains with local structural and polar heterogeneity are formed, by tuning complex chemical compositions. We used a different strategy to emulate such local heterogeneity by forming nanopillar regions in perovskite oxide thin films. We obtained a giant effective piezoelectric coefficient d 33 , f * of ~1098 picometers per volt with a high Curie temperature of ~450°C. Our lead-free composition of sodium-deficient sodium niobate contains only three elements (Na, Nb, and O). The formation of local heterogeneity with nanopillars in the perovskite structure could be the basis for a general approach to designing and optimizing various functional materials.

Science & Technology - Other Topics↗

DOE OSTI2021

Precipitation Hardening in Ferroelectric Ceramics

Domain wall motion in ferroics, similar to dislocation motion in metals, can be tuned by well-concepted microstructural elements. In demanding high-power applications of piezoelectric materials, the domain wall motion is considered as a lossy hysteretic mechanism that should be restricted. Current applications for so-called hard piezoelectrics are abundant and hinge on the use of an acceptor-doping scheme. However, this mechanism features severe limitations due to enhanced mobility of oxygen vacancies at moderate temperatures. By analogy with metal technology, the authors present here a new solution for electroceramics, where precipitates are utilized to pin domain walls and improve piezoelectric properties. Through a sequence of sintering, nucleation, and precipitate growth, intragranular precipitates leading to a fine domain structure are developed as shown by transmission electron microscopy, piezoresponse force microscopy, and phase-field simulation. This structure impedes the domain wall motion as elucidated by electromechanical characterization. As a result, the mechanical quality factor is increased by ≈50% and the hysteresis in electrostrain is suppressed considerably. This is even achieved with slightly increased piezoelectric coefficient and electromechanical coupling factor. This novel process can be smoothly implemented in industrial production processes and is accessible to simple laboratory experimentation for microstructure optimization and implementation in various ferroelectric systems.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2020

Giant Superelastic Piezoelectricity in Flexible Ferroelectric BaTiO3 Membranes

Mechanical displacement in commonly used piezoelectric materials is typically restricted to linear or biaxial in nature and to a few percent of the material dimensions. Here in this paper, we show that free-standing BaTiO 3 membranes exhibit nonconventional electromechanical coupling. Under an external electric field, these superelastic membranes undergo controllable and reversible “sushi-rolling-like” 180° folding–unfolding cycles. This crease-free folding is mediated by charged ferroelectric domains, leading to giant >3.8 and 4.6 μm displacements for a 30 nm thick membrane at room temperature and 60 °C, respectively. Further increasing the electric field above the coercive value changes the fold curvature, hence augmenting the effective piezoresponse. Finally, it is found that the membranes fold with increasing temperature followed by complete immobility of the membrane above the Curie temperature, allowing us to model the ferroelectric domain origin of the effect.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

NASA NTRS1989

Distributed structural control using multilayered piezoelectric actuators. I - Analysis

Timoshenko beam theory is applied to beams with multiple layers of piezoelectric material attached. The model is developed using a Hamiltonian approach, and includes a model of the external electrical circuits to which the piezoelectric layers are attached, as well as a complete set of boundary conditions. The resulting model is then formulated in state space, and compared to a state space model of the standard Timoshenko beam.

Cudney, H. H.↗

DOE OSTI2020

Diffused morphotropic phase boundary in relaxor-PbTiO 3 crystals: High piezoelectricity with improved thermal stability

Solid solution ferroelectrics are the most widely used piezoelectric material for numerous electromechanical applications, including sensors, actuators, and transducers. A milestone in ferroelectric research is the discovery of the morphotropic phase boundary that was first reported in Pb(Zr x Ti 1–x )O 3 , which has been extensively solicited to improve the performance of various solid solution ferroelectrics, including those having the highest piezoelectricity known today. However, due to the inherent correlation between phase transition and thermodynamic imbalance, the efforts of building the phase boundary encounter the challenge that high performance materials are generally accompanied by property instability. In this paper, we report a comprehensive study on the crystalline symmetry and polar nano-regions in relaxor-PbTiO 3 crystals by synchrotron measurements and property characterizations. In contrast to the common belief that the morphotropic phase boundary is a narrow composition region, the morphotropic phase boundary in ternary Pb(In 1/2 Nb 1/2 )O 3 -Pb(Mg 1/3 Nb 2/3 )O 3 -PbTiO 3 is demonstrated as an extensive region covering at least 9% of the PbTiO 3 content. Such a diffused morphotropic phase boundary is associated with the intensive interaction of polar nano-regions, leading to high piezoelectricity (>1500 pC/N) with greatly improved thermal stability, where the piezoelectric variation is ~90% over the temperature range of 273–373 K, which is about a factor of 3 lower compared to its binary counterpart Pb(Mg 1/3 Nb 2/3 )O 3 -PbTiO 3 . This work sheds light on the fundamental understanding of nanoscale inhomogeneity and macroscopic symmetry in relaxor-PbTiO 3 , and successfully interlinks the structure and properties in complex solid solutions. The existence of a diffused morphotropic phase boundary is also expected to benefit other ferroic systems beyond ferroelectrics, such as ferromagnetic and multiferroic materials.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

NASA NTRS2005

Bringing Thunder and Lightning Indoors

Piezoelectric materials convert mechanical energy into electrical energy and electrical energy into mechanical energy. They generate electrical charges in response to mechanical stress and generate mechanical displacement and/or force when subjected to an electric current. Scientists at Langley Research Center have developed a piezoelectric device that is superior in many ways to those that used to be the only ones commercially available. It is tougher, has far greater displacement and greater mechanical load capacity for a comparative voltage operation, can be easily produced at a relatively low cost, and lends itself well to mass production. The NASA-developed piezoelectric device is also unique in that it is more efficient in extracting electrical energy from the mechanical energy that goes in. It works on a simple principle. A thin ceramic piezoelectric wafer is sandwiched between an aluminum sheet and a steel sheet and held together with LaRC-SI, an amorphous thermoplastic adhesive with special properties created by NASA at Langley. The sandwich is heated in an autoclave, and the adhesive melts. When the sandwich cools, the adhesive bonds the parts together into one piezoelectric element. While they cool, the components of the element contract at different rates, since they are made of different materials. This differential shrinkage causes the element to warp in either a convex or concave shape, depending on which way it is oriented. The shrinking of the outside metal layers places the inside piezoelectric ceramic under mechanical stress. If the element is cantilevered by clamping one side and then plucked, it reverberates like a diving board that has just ejected a diver. This way, a small amount of mechanical energy can result in a relatively long period of electrical generation. When the piezoelectric element is used for the creation of electricity, it is called Lightning. This same sandwiched piezoelectric wafer can also convert electrical energy into mechanical energy. Then, it is called Thunder. Electricity goes in, excites the element, and then, mechanical energy in the form of movement is generated.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1994

Design of passive piezoelectric damping for space structures

Passive damping of structural dynamics using piezoceramic electromechanical energy conversion and passive electrical networks is a relatively recent concept with little implementation experience base. This report describes an implementation case study, starting from conceptual design and technique selection, through detailed component design and testing to simulation on the structure to be damped. About 0.5kg. of piezoelectric material was employed to damp the ASTREX testbed, a 500kg structure. Emphasis was placed upon designing the damping to enable high bandwidth robust feedback control. Resistive piezoelectric shunting provided the necessary broadband damping. The piezoelectric element was incorporated into a mechanically-tuned vibration absorber in order to concentrate damping into the 30 to 40 Hz frequency modes at the rolloff region of the proposed compensator. A prototype of a steel flex-tensional motion amplification device was built and tested. The effective stiffness and damping of the flex-tensional device was experimentally verified. When six of these effective springs are placed in an orthogonal configuration, strain energy is absorbed from all six degrees of freedom of a 90kg. mass. A NASTRAN finite element model of the testbed was modified to include the six-spring damping system. An analytical model was developed for the spring in order to see how the flex-tensional device and piezoelectric dimensions effect the critical stress and strain energy distribution throughout the component. Simulation of the testbed demonstrated the damping levels achievable in the completed system.

Hagood, Nesbitt W., IV↗

NASA NTRS2016

Carbon Nanotube Tape Vibrating Gyroscope

A vibrating gyroscope includes a piezoelectric strip having length and width dimensions. The piezoelectric strip includes a piezoelectric material and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) substantially aligned and polled along the strip's length dimension. A spindle having an axis of rotation is coupled to the piezoelectric strip. The axis of rotation is parallel to the strip's width dimension. A first capacitance sensor is mechanically coupled to the spindle for rotation therewith. The first capacitance sensor is positioned at one of the strip's opposing ends and is spaced apart from one of the strip's opposing faces. A second capacitance sensor is mechanically coupled to the spindle for rotation therewith. The second capacitance sensor is positioned at another of the strip's opposing ends and is spaced apart from another of the strip's opposing faces. A voltage source applies an AC voltage to the piezoelectric strip.

Tucker, Dennis Stephen↗

NASA NTRS2010

Ultrasonic/Sonic Drill for High Temperature Application

Venus is one of the many significant scientific targets for NASA. New rock sampling tools with the ability to be operated at high temperatures of the order of 460 deg C are required for surface in-situ sampling/analysis missions. Piezoelectric materials such as LiNbO? crystals and Bismuth Titanate are potentially operational at the temperature range found on the surface of Venus. A study of the feasibility of producing piezoelectric drills for a temperature up to 500 deg C was conducted. The study includes investigation of the high temperature properties of piezoelectric crystals and ceramics with different formulas and doping. Several prototypes of Ultrasonic/Sonic Drill/Corers (USDC) driven by transducers using the high temperate piezoelectric ceramics and single LiNbO? crystal were fabricated. The transducers were analyzed by scanning the impedance at room temperature and 500 deg C under both low and high voltages. The drilling performances were tested at temperature up to 500 deg C. Preliminary results were previously reported [Bao et al, 2009]. In this paper, the progress is presented and the future works for performance improvements are discussed.

Piezoelectric Drill↗

NASA NTRS2003

Impedance-Based Structural Health Monitoring for Composite Laminates at Cryogenic Environments

One of the important ways of increasing the payload in a reusable launch vehicle (RLV) is to replace heavy metallic materials by lightweight composite laminates. Among various parts and systems of the RLV, this project focuses on tanks containing cryogenic fuel. Historically, aluminum alloys have been used as the materials to construct fuel tanks for launch vehicles. To replace aluminum alloys with composite laminates or honeycomb materials, engineers have to make sure that the composites are free of defects before, during, and after launch. In addition to robust design and manufacturing procedures, the performance of the composite structures needs to be monitored constantly.In recent years, the impedance-based health monitoring technique has shown its promise in many applications. This technique makes use of the special properties of smart piezoelectric materials to identify the change of material properties due to the nucleation and progression of damage. The piezoceramic patch serves as a sensor and an actuator simultaneously. The piezoelectric patch is bonded onto an existing structure or embedded into a new structure and electrically excited at high frequencies. The signature (impedance or admittance) is extracted as a function of the exciting frequency and is compared with the baseline signature of the healthy state. The damage is quantified using root mean square deviation (RMSD) in the impedance signatures with respect to the baseline signature. A major advantage of this technique is that the procedure is nondestructive in nature and does not perturb the properties and performance of the materials and structures. This project aims at applying the impedance-based nondestructive testing technique to the damage identification of composite laminates at cryogenic temperature.

Tseng, Kevin↗

NASA NTRS2002

A Piezoelectric Unimorph Deformable Mirror Concept by Wafer Transfer for Ultra Large Space Telescopes

Future concepts of ultra large space telescopes include segmented silicon mirrors and inflatable polymer mirrors. Primary mirrors for these systems cannot meet optical surface figure requirements and are likely to generate over several microns of wavefront errors. In order to correct for these large wavefront errors, high stroke optical quality deformable mirrors are required. JPL has recently developed a new technology for transferring an entire wafer-level mirror membrane from one substrate to another. A thin membrane, 100 mm in diameter, has been successfully transferred without using adhesives or polymers. The measured peak-to-valley surface error of a transferred and patterned membrane (1 mm x 1 mm x 0.016 mm) is only 9 nm. The mirror element actuation principle is based on a piezoelectric unimorph. A voltage applied to the piezoelectric layer induces stress in the longitudinal direction causing the film to deform and pull on the mirror connected to it. The advantage of this approach is that the small longitudinal strains obtainable from a piezoelectric material at modest voltages are thus translated into large vertical displacements. Modeling is performed for a unimorph membrane consisting of clamped rectangular membrane with a PZT layer with variable dimensions. The membrane transfer technology is combined with the piezoelectric bimorph actuator concept to constitute a compact deformable mirror device with a large stroke actuation of a continuous mirror membrane, resulting in a compact A0 systems for use in ultra large space telescopes.

continuous mirror↗

NASA NTRS2009

Enhanced High Temperature Piezoelectrics Based on BiScO3-PbTiO3 Ceramics

High-temperature piezoelectrics are a key technology for aeronautics and aerospace applications such as fuel modulation to increase the engine efficiency and decrease emissions. The principal challenge for the insertion of piezoelectric materials is the limitation on upper use temperature which is due to low Curie-Temperature (TC) and increasing electrical conductivity. BiScO3-PbTiO3 (BS-PT) system is a promising candidate for improving the operating temperature for piezoelectric actuators due to its high TC (greater than 400 C). Bi2O3 was shown to be a good sintering aid for liquid phase sintering resulting in reduced grain size and increased resistivity. Zr doped and liquid phase sintered BS-PT ceramics exhibited saturated and square hysteresis loops with enhanced remenant polarization (37 microC per square centimeter) and coercive field (14 kV/cm). BS-PT doped with Mn showed enhanced field induced strain (0.27% at 50kV/cm). All the numbers indicated in parenthesis were collected at 100 C.

Sehirlioglu, Alp↗

NASA NTRS2008

Doping of BiScO3-PbTiO3 Ceramics for Enhanced Properties

High-temperature piezoelectrics are a key technology for aeronautics and aerospace applications such as fuel modulation to increase the engine efficiency and decrease emissions. The principal challenge for the insertion of piezoelectric materials is the limitation on upper use temperature which is due to low Curie-Temperature (T(sub c) and increasing electrical conductivity. BiScO3 -PbTiO3 (BS-PT) system is a promising candidate for improving the operating temperature for piezoelectric actuators due to its high TC (>400 C). Effects of Zr and Mn doping of the BS-PT ceramics have been studied and all electrical and electromechanical properties for Sc-deficient and Ti-deficient BS- PT ceramics are reported as a function of electrical field and temperature. Donor doping with Zr and Mn (in Sc deficient compositions) increased the DC-resistivity and decreased tan at all temperatures. Resulting ceramics exhibited saturated hysteresis loops with low losses and showed no dependence on the applied field (above twice the coercive field) and measurement frequency.

Sehirlioglu, Alp↗