Converse flexoelectricity yields large piezoresponse force microscopy signals in non-piezoelectric materials

Amir Abdollahi; Neus Domingo; Irene Arias; Gustau Catalan

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-09266-y

Converse flexoelectricity yields large piezoresponse force microscopy signals in non-piezoelectric materials

Amir Abdollahi, Neus Domingo, Irene Arias, Gustau Catalan

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

104 Scopus citations

Abstract

Converse flexoelectricity is a mechanical stress induced by an electric polarization gradient. It can appear in any material, irrespective of symmetry, whenever there is an inhomogeneous electric field distribution. This situation invariably happens in piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM), which is a technique whereby a voltage is delivered to the tip of an atomic force microscope in order to stimulate and probe piezoelectricity at the nanoscale. While PFM is the premier technique for studying ferroelectricity and piezoelectricity at the nanoscale, here we show, theoretically and experimentally, that large effective piezoelectric coefficients can be measured in non-piezoelectric dielectrics due to converse flexoelectricity.

Original language	English
Article number	1266
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	10
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09266-y
State	Published - Dec 1 2019
Externally published	Yes

Funding

G.C. and N.D. acknowledge financial support from ERC Starting grant 308023, from Plan Nacional project MINECO Grant MAT2016-77100-C2-1-P and FIS2015-73932-JIN and support of Generalitat de Catalunya (Grant No. 2017-SGR-579). ICN2 acknowledges support from the Severo Ochoa Program (MINECO, Grant SEV-2017-0706) and the CERCA Programme / Generalitat de Catalunya. I.A. acknowledges the support of the Generalitat de Catalunya through the prize “ICREA Academia” for excellence in research and of the European Research Council (StG-679451). I.A. and A.A. also acknowledge the support of Generalitat de Catalunya (Grant No. 2017-SGR-1278).

Funders	Funder number
Seventh Framework Programme	308023, 679451
European Research Council	2017-SGR-1278
Generalitat de Catalunya	SEV-2017-0706, 2017-SGR-579
Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad	FIS2015-73932-JIN, MAT2016-77100-C2-1-P
Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats

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abstract = "Converse flexoelectricity is a mechanical stress induced by an electric polarization gradient. It can appear in any material, irrespective of symmetry, whenever there is an inhomogeneous electric field distribution. This situation invariably happens in piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM), which is a technique whereby a voltage is delivered to the tip of an atomic force microscope in order to stimulate and probe piezoelectricity at the nanoscale. While PFM is the premier technique for studying ferroelectricity and piezoelectricity at the nanoscale, here we show, theoretically and experimentally, that large effective piezoelectric coefficients can be measured in non-piezoelectric dielectrics due to converse flexoelectricity.",

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Converse flexoelectricity yields large piezoresponse force microscopy signals in non-piezoelectric materials

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