Tuning the energy storage performance, piezoelectric strain and strain hysteresis of relaxor PLZT thin films through controlled microstructure by changing the ablation rate
Tuning the energy storage performance, piezoelectric strain and strain hysteresis of relaxor PLZT thin films through controlled microstructure by changing the ablation rate
Relaxor-ferroelectric Pb0.9La0.1(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 (PLZT) films with a thickness of 1.2 μm were deposited on LaNiO3-buffered Ca2Nb3O10-nanosheet/Si. It was revealed how structural modification of a PLZT film, fabricated using pulsed laser deposition under various ablation rates, can be used to tune its energy-storage performance and piezoelectric-strain. A highest unipolar piezoelectric-strain of 0.71% with extremely low strain-hysteresis of 1.9% and corresponding normalized-strain of 142 pm/V under an electric field of 500 kV/cm were observed in the film deposited at an ablation rate of 50 Hz, and such film consists of vertical columnar-structure. Whereas, the film deposited at a low ablation rate of 10 Hz with dense-structure had the higher recoverable energy-storage density (50.2J/cm3) and energy-storage efficiency (82.2%) due to the larger electric-breakdown strength (3150 kV/cm). The strongly improved performance by choosing an appropriate film structure is important for practical applications in pulse-power energy-storage as well as for the development of piezo-driven microelectromechanical-systems.