Recent Advances in Piezoelectric Materials for Electromechanical Transducer Applications

Ferroelectricity has made a huge impact on science and technology since Joseph Valasek (then Ph.D. student at the University of Minnesota) discovered it in 1920, little longer than 100 years ago. Whereas Dr. Valasek’s original research was motivated by need to develop seismic sensors, present ferroelectric materials have been extensively studied for applications high-energy capacitors, energy harvesting systems, night vision electrocaloric solid cooling, and, particular significance, ferroelectrics are material-of-choice numerous electromechanical devices, including underwater acoustic transducers, medical diagnostic therapeutic piezoelectric actuators, ultrasonic motors, name few. The progress over past enormous is ongoing: example, coefficient d increased from few pico-Coulomb per Newton several thousand Newton, which benefits all sensing actuation devices.