Markys G Cain

• PhD Physics
• Research Director at Electrosciences Ltd

The use of piezoelectric nanomaterials combined with ultrasound stimulation is emerging as a promising approach for wirelessly triggering the regeneration of different tissue types. However, it has never been explored for boosting chondrogenesis. Furthermore, the ultrasound stimulation parameters used are often not adequately controlled. In this st...

A novel methodology is presented for identifying and distinguishing between structural phases in multi-phasic systems, such as piezoelectric materials like PMN–PT [Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–PbTiO3], PIN–PMN–PT [Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O3–Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–PbTiO3] and PZT [Pb(Zr,Ti)O3], using diffuse multiple scattering and Kossel line diffraction techniques. The metho...

Engineering materials through the introduction of point defects has resulted in significant advances in semiconductor processing and, more recently, the observation of novel phenomena such as large reconfigurable strains in ferroelectrics as a result of defect dipole complexes. Up to 0.8% strain has been demonstrated in BaTiO 3 crystals dilutely do...

Osteoarthritis implies a progressive degeneration of the whole joint. Cartilage is particularly affected, with inflammation playing a pivotal role1. In recent years, cartilage regeneration has been pursued through several bioengineering strategies and using different stem cell types2-6. Adipose -derived mesenchymal stromal cells (ASCs) constitute a...

Electrical switching of ferroelectric domains and subsequent domain wall motion promotes strong piezoelectric activity; however, light scatters at refractive index discontinuities such as those found at domain wall boundaries. Thus, simultaneously achieving large piezoelectric effect and high optical transmissivity is generally deemed infeasible. H...

Demonstrating both the intrinsic and extrinsic nature of the giant piezoelectric effect (GPE) in complex solid solutions, near the morphotropic phase boundary, has been extremely challenging until now, because such materials exhibit multiple phases on the order of tens of microns across, meaning important information is lost due to averaging when u...

In this work, we present a grazing incidence X-ray diffraction study of the surface of a 0.24Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O3-Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 (PIN-PMN-PT) [011] poled rhombohedral single crystal. The near surface microstructure (the top several tens to hundreds of unit cells) was measured in situ under an applied electric field. The strains calculated from...

Multiferroics that simultaneously exhibit ferroelectricity and ferromagnetism have recently attracted great attention due to their potential application in next generation electronic devices. However, only a few single-phase multiferroic materials exhibit ferroelectric and ferromagnetic orders at room temperature. Recently, some bismuth layer-struc...

In this work, we demonstrate that xPb(In1/2Nb1/2)O3-(1-x-y)Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-yPbTiO3 [110]-poled domain-engineered relaxor single crystals can be dynamically and reversibly driven through a ferroelectric–ferroelectric phase transition exhibiting a highly enhanced piezoelectric response in a wide range of frequencies. Realization of this phase switch...

Combining and coupling both magnetic and electric properties in one single phase multiferroic material has attracted high interest recently to enable a broad range of novel devices and applications. To evaluate one potential route toward new multiferroics, we have studied 0.5% Fe-doped BaTiO3 single crystals and measured the ferroelectric, magnetic...

Plans are being developed to drill and core a 100m deep hole on the Moon, an ambitious step beyond the 2.986m depth achieved at the Apollo 17 landing site in 1972. There are many scientific reasons for doing this, including determining the lunar geology and mineralogy below the meteorite-shattered regolith surface and its volatile content and heat...

Multiferroics (MFs) have attracted great research interest due to the coexistence of ferroelectric and magnetic ordering, as well as magnetoelectric (ME) coupling. At present, there is a very limited number of single-phase MFs known and these are still far from practical applications. In single-phase MFs, the simultaneous presence of electric and m...

We provide an insight into the switching of near-morphotropic composition of PZT using molecular dynamics simulations and electrical measurements. The simulations and experiments exhibit qualitatively similar hysteretic behavior of the polarization for different temperatures showing widening of the P-E loops and the decrease of the coercive field t...

Piezoelectric devices with complex electrode geometries often contain ferroelectric regions that experience little or no electric field and remain unpolarised. Since the un-poled and poled material properties differ it is desirable to account for these regions in a device when developing predictive models or to design piezoelectric transducers. The...

Reduction in polarisation of ferroelectric materials due to repeated electrical cycling is a major problem in ferroelectric non-volatile memory devices. There is a large amount of data addressing this issue at high electric field strengths under bipolar loading conditions, however the effect of field cycling at low electric field strengths (< Ec) h...

A power generating fusion reactor will operate under extreme conditions of temperature and high-energy particle fluences. The energy is produced by the nuclear fusion reaction of deuterium and tritium in a plasma, which can reach temperatures of the order of 100 million °C. The reaction generates helium, high energy (14 MeV) neutrons and gamma rays...

The complex permittivity of bulk ceramic ferroelectric of nominal composition PbZr0.4Ti0.6O3 was measured in the range 0.2–2 THz using transmission time-domain spectroscopy. The results indicate strong absorption and dispersion in this frequency range as often seen in highly disordered and polar materials. The results are compared to equivalent thi...

tIn this work, we evaluated the piezoelectric properties of the ZnO nanorods (NRs), subsequently grownby a template-free electrochemical deposition (ECD) approach. The one-step preparation method yieldedin a relatively short-time synthesis large arrays of high aspect-ratio ZnO NRs, vertically aligned to thesubstrate and exhibiting a well-defined he...

The complex dielectric constant of bulk ceramic ferroelectric PbZr 0.4 Ti 0.6 O 3 was measured in the range 0.2–2 THz using transmission time-domain spectroscopy. The material shows strong absorption and high refractive index with large dispersion. The results are compared to equivalent thin film data in the literature.

Currently available high performance piezoelectric materials, predominantly based on lead zirconate titanate (PZT), are typically limited to operating temperatures of around 200 A degrees C or below. There are many applications in sectors such as automotive, aerospace, power generation and process control, oil and gas, where reliable operation at h...

We have developed a shell model force-field that reproduces the details of the phase diagram of the Pb(Zr1-xTix)O3 (PZT) solid solution compound, including the low and high temperature phases of PbZrO3 and PbTiO3. The developed force-field supports the temperature induced phase transitions from cubic to low symmetry phases over the whole compositio...

The determination of the piezoelectric coefficient of thin films using interferometry is hindered by bending contributions. Using finite element analysis (FEA) simulations, we show that the Lefki and Dormans approximations using either single or double-beam measurements cannot be used with finite top electrode sizes. We introduce a novel method for...

The Laser Intensity Modulation Method, LIMM, has been used to investigate the poling state of ceramic piezoelectric thin films. The frequency of the system has been extended to 70MHz to enable films of thicknesses down to 100nm to be measured. A unique development has been to sweep the DC bias applied to the sample whilst performing the LIMM measur...

The ferroelectric properties of 2-layer Dion-Jacobson compounds ABiNb2O7 (A = Rb and Cs) were studied. Ferroelectricity and piezoelectricity of CsBiNb2O7 were demonstrated for the first time. The ferroelectric domain structure of Dion-Jacobson compounds were imaged using PFM. The Curie points of RbBiNb2O7 and CsBiNb2O7 are 1098±5 and 1033±5 °C, res...

ZnO nanostructure based energy harvesting devi- ces (ZnO nanogenerator) were fabricated using ZnO nanorods with the surface modified using a polyelectrolyte assembly comprising bi-layers of Polydiallyldimethylammonium chlo- ride and Polystyrene sulfonate. The peak open-circuit voltage device characteristics and power delivered across a load increas...

Here, we study the piezoresponse of epitaxial ferroelectric samples excited through top electrode structures with conductive tips in the global excitation mode and compare these results to displacement values obtained using artifact-free laser Doppler vibrometry (LDV) measurements. Substrate bending modes are studied using finite element simulation...

Self-powered piezoelectric systems are vital components to harvest ambient waste energy for applications such as autonomous self-powered sensors. ZnO nanorod-based devices are gaining wide attention for energy harvesters as they are easily synthesized at low temperature onto a range of substrates. However, losses related to screening of piezoelectr...

An analytical method is developed to determine piezoelectric properties of a thin film directly from measurements of bilayer deflection. As a significant extension to previous approaches, we include here the effects of bilayer bending, differential thermal expansion, and epitaxial lattice mismatch which commonly arise in practical measurements. The...

Table of contents: Electrical Measurement of Ferroelectric Properties Piezoelectric Resonance Direct Piezoelectric Measurement: The Berlincourt Method Characterisation of Pyroelectric Materials Interferometry for Piezoelectric Materials and Thin Films Temperature Dependence of Ferroelectric and Piezoelectric Properties of PZT Ceramics Measurement...

This chapter provides detail of standards-related activities for piezoelectric materials—mainly bulk ceramic types. The production of standards, particularly international ones, is a long process. The existence or not of a standard in a particular area is not solely because of the need for such a standard, but is due to the concerted effort of indi...

Although piezoelectric materials are often used as actuators in order to make small precise movements it can be difficult to measure these displacements in an industrial environment [1].

Scanning probe microscopy (SPM) is a very versatile technique allowing for a large range of sample properties to be measured and manipulated with nanometre spatial resolution.

Temperature induced changes in the properties of piezoelectric and ferroelectric materials have major implications for the design of devices used in wide variety of technological applications.

Historically, the method defined by IEEE has been used extensively to analyse the resonance spectra of piezoelectric materials. Here, the resonance frequencies from a set of samples of different geometries are measured and along with their dimensions and sample density the piezoelectric coefficients determined. This method is simple to carry out in...

Under the application of a large enough electrical field a dielectric material can respond through motion of free charge carriers, injection of mobile charge carriers from electrodes, space charge generation, and dissipation of energy in the material, all of which may contribute to the electrical failure of the material. Various theories have been...

Ferroelectric materials are defined by the existence of a finite polarisation at zero electric field, the direction of which can be switched by the application of an external field. Measurement of the electrical properties is therefore an important tool in identifying ferroelectricity and in characterising the ferroelectric properties of a material...

The physics of size effects in ferroelectric materials influences finite, measurable, changes in the macroscopic functional behaviour of small-scale systems. In these confined geometries the ceramic microstructure, and in particular grain size and domain switching properties, often enhances the importance of extrinsic effects in the ferroelectric r...

Single crystal (1 − x)Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–xPbTiO3 [PMN–xPT] (x = 0.32) is a relaxor-ferroelectric material known to exhibit ‘giant’ piezoelectric behavior, with achievable strains in excess of 1% for samples of certain particular crystallographic orientations and chemical compositions close to the morphotropic phase boundary. In this study, we investi...

The oxide heterostructure [(YFeO$_3$)$_5$(LaFeO$_3$)$_5$]$_{40}$, which is magnetically ordered and piezoelectric at room temperature, has been constructed from two weak ferromagnetic AFeO$_3$ perovskites with different A cations using RHEED-monitored pulsed laser deposition. The polarisation arises through the removal of inversion centres present...

This paper evaluates the improvement in performance of ZnO nanowires energy harvesters using p-type copper thiocyanate (CuSCN) passivation. Two types of p-n junction based devices: ZnO/PEDOT:PSS (poly(3,4-ethylene-dioxythiophene) poly(styrenesulfonate)) and ZnO/CuSCN/PEDOT:PSS were fabricated. It was observed that, the passivation of nanowires usin...

We report the development of a pulsed inductive microwave magnetometer for measurements of ultra-fast magnetization dynamics of soft magnetic thin films. This paper details the instrument construction and the measurement procedure. We show experimentally that our instrument detects nanosecond and sub-nanosecond magnetization precession/relaxation p...

A vertical levitation electrostatic comb drive actuator was manufactured for the purpose of measuring piezoelectric coefficients in small-scale materials and devices. Previous modelling work on comb drive levitation has focussed on control of the levitation in standard poly-silicon devices in order to minimize effects on lateral modes of operation...

Electromechanical energy harvesting converts mechanical energy from the environment, such as vibration or human activity, into electrical energy that can be used to power a low power electronic device. Nanostructured piezoelectric energy harvesting devices, often termed nanogenerators, have rapidly increased in measured output over recent years. Wi...

Dense BiFeO3 nanoceramics (similar to 40 nm) were prepared by spark plasma sintering nanopowders synthesized via a sol-gel method and high energy ball milling. The Neel temperature decreases from 340 degrees C to 265 degrees C because of enhanced geometry-driven frustration of spin ordering in finer particles. The Curie point shifts to lower temper...

In this work, we demonstrate a very high‐energy density and high‐temperature stability capacitor based on SrTiO3‐substituted BiFeO3 thin films. An energy density of 18.6 J/cm3 at 972 kV/cm is reported. The temperature coefficient of capacitance (TCC) was below 11% from room temperature up to 200°C. These results are of practical importance, because...

Recent developments on the use of the piezoelectric effect in ZnO nanorod-based p-n junctions for energy harvesting applications are presented. We describe a hybrid p-n nanostructured ZnO energy device combined with the semiconducting polymer poly(3,4-ethylene-dioxythiophene) poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) to produce a kinetic energy harvesting...

This paper gives a theoretically rigorous description of energy coupling in piezoelectric actuators considering both DC and AC excitations. It is shown that these different excitations schemes give different actuator efficiencies, in general, but that DC and AC efficiencies converge at low frequencies given a suitable definition of efficiency in ea...

Recent developments on the use of the piezoelectric effect in ZnO nanorod-based p-n junctions for energy harvesting applications are presented. Two types of junctions are used. The first is a hybrid p-n device combining the semiconducting polymer poly(3,4-ethylene-dioxythiophene) poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) with ZnO nanorods. The second type...

A micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) vertical levitation comb drive actuator has been created for the measurement of piezoelectric coefficients in thin/thick films or piezoelectrically active micro-scale components of other MEMS devices. The device exerts a dynamic force of 33 μN at an applied voltage of 100 V. The charge developed on the piez...

An atomistic model of the SiO2/BaTiO3 interface was constructed using ab initio molecular dynamics. Analysis of its structure and electronic properties reveals that (i) the band gap at the stoichiometric SiO2/BaTiO3 interface is significantly smaller than those of the bulk BaTiO3 and SiO2, and (ii) the interface contains 5.5 nm–2 oxygen vacancies (...

The manner in which ultrathin films of alumina, deposited at the dielectric-electrode interface, affect the recoverable energy density associated with (BiFeO3)0.6–(SrTiO3)0.4 (BFST) thin film capacitors has been characterised. Approximately 6 nm of alumina on 400 nm of BFST increases the maximum recoverable energy of the system by around 30% from ∼...

Piezoelectric ZnO nanorods grown on a flexible substrate are combined with the p-type semiconducting polymer PEDOT:PSS to produce a p-n junction device that successfully demonstrates kinetic-to-electrical energy conversion. Both the voltage and current output of the devices are measured to be in the range of 10 mV and 10 μA cm−2. Combining these fi...

Bottom-gate, bottom-contact organic thin film transistors (OTFTs) were fabricated using solvent soluble copper 1,4,8,11,15,18,22,25-octakis(hexyl)phthalocyanine as the active semiconductor layer. The compound was deposited as 70 nm thick spin-coated films onto gold source–drain electrodes supported on octadecyltrichlorosilane treated 250 nm thick S...

The characteristics of a new ferroelectric measurement system at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility are presented. The electric-field-induced phase transitions of Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–xPbTiO3 are determined viain situ measurements of electric polarization within the synchrotron diffraction beamline. Real-time data collection methods on single-...

The effects of the lattice strain induced by neutral oxygen vacancies in ferroelectric tetragonal BaTiO3 and KNbO3 are investigated using ab initio simulations. We propose that an oxygen vacancy can transform from its metastable equatorial configuration to the stable axial configuration via either diffusion or rotation of the polar axis near the va...

The effects of temperature and electric field-induced structural modifications on the energy storage properties of 0.95[0.94Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3–0.06BaTiO3]–0.05K0.5Na0.5NbO3 (BNT–BT–5KNN) ceramics were investigated. X-ray diffraction performed on unpoled and poled ceramics in the temperature range 25–500 °C suggested an increment in the rhombohedral pha...

Prolonged operation of piezoelectric ceramic devices under high dc electric fields promotes leakage currents between the electrodes. This paper investigates the effects of ceramic porosity, edge conduction and electrode materials and geometry in the development of low resistance conduction paths through the ceramic. Localized changes in the ceramic...

Combining long-range magnetic order with polarity in the same structure is a prerequisite for the design of (magnetoelectric) multiferroic materials. There are now several demonstrated strategies to achieve this goal, but retaining magnetic order above room temperature remains a difficult target. Iron oxides in the +3 oxidation state have high magn...

The Metrology for Energy Harvesting project made up of 7 European national measurement institutes (NMI), including the UK's National Physical Laboratory, aims to develop traceable measurement methods that reduce duplication and accelerate innovation and competitiveness in energy harvesting. The project is aiming to provide the standards that will s...

Piezoelectric energy harvesting cantilevers provide a simple, compact low cost construction method for energy harvesting from vibrational sources. Beam theory predicts a linear distribution of strain along the length of the beam, but the conversion of this strain to electrical energy is dependent on the coverage of the beam with active material. In...

The manner in which 90° ferroelectric-ferroelastic domains respond to changes in temperature has been mapped in BaTiO3 single crystals using atomic force microscopy. Domain periodicity remains unaltered until approximately 2 °C below the Curie temperature (TC), whereupon domains coarsened dramatically. This behavior was successfully rationalized by...

Magneto-electric (ME) effects in bi-layer multiferroics consisting of single crystal hexagonal SrAlxFe12 − xO19 ferrites (hexaferrites, where x = 0, 0.8, 1.2) and PbZrTiO3 (PZT) have been studied. The main objective of the study was to determine the effect of the Al doping concentration on the ME coupling. We experimentally demonstrate that the Al...

ZnO nanorods grown on plastic substrates by chemical methods are combined with both inorganic and organic p-type materials to make flexible p-n junction devices. When bent the devices generate both voltage and current peaks, which is attributed to the piezoelectric effect in the ZnO nanorods. The best device produces a maximum possible power densit...

The functional properties of ferroelectric ceramic bulk or thin film materials are strongly influenced by their nano-structure, crystallographic orientation and structural geometry. In this paper, we present a possible route to quantification of piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) by combining it with textural analysis, through electron back-scatt...

We show that the optical infrared magneto-refractive effect can be used to probe magneto-resistance effects in absolute terms. A spin valve sample with synthetic anti-ferromagnet has been studied using non-contact infrared reflection spectroscopy measurements. Direct experimental comparison shows excellent agreement between electrical and optical m...

Electrostriction plays a central role in describing the electromechanical properties of ferroelectric materials, including widely used piezoelectric ceramics. The piezoelectric properties are closely related to the underlying electrostriction. Small-field piezoelectric properties can be described as electrostriction offset by the remanent polarizat...

Time- and temperature-dependent effects are critical for the operation of non-volatile memories based on ferroelectrics. In this paper, we assume a domain nucleation process of the polarization reversal and we discuss the polarization dynamics in the framework of a non-equilibrium statistical model. This approach yields analytical expressions which...

Electron microscopy and associated analytical spectroscopic techniques have been used to characterize interfaces in SiC-fibre/silicate-matrix composites. Interface structure, formed via reaction during hot-press fabrication, is a function of time, temperature, matrix composition and fibre type. Interfaces with Nicalon or Tyranno fibres vary from am...

Bulk 0.7PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3–0.3NiFe2O4 nanoceramic composites with a grain size of ~50 nm were fabricated using chemical synthesis, high-energy ball-milling, and spark plasma sintering. The composite produced broad dielectric constant peaks and frequency dispersion, similar to relaxor ferroelectrics, and was ferroelectric and ferromagnetic. The dielec...

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We would like to acknowledge the help of Professor Roger Whatmore (Tyndall National Institute, Cork) who suggested the cause of the phenomenon as the adiabatic heating and cooling of the highly sensitive pyroelectric material on the basis of work carried out at Plessey Research Caswell Ltd. We are very grateful for stimulating and e...

The ability to dynamically tune the coercive field of magnetic thin films is a powerful tool for applications, including in magnetic recording disk technologies. Recently, a number of papers have reported the electrical voltage control of the coercive field of various magnetic thin films in multiferroic composites. Theoretically, this is possible i...

Solution-processed films of 1,4,8,11,15,18,22,25-octakis(hexyl) copper phthalocyanine (CuPc6) were utilized as an active semiconducting layer in the fabrication of organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) in the bottom-gate configurations using chemical vapour deposited silicon dioxide (SiO2) as gate dielectrics. The surface treatment of the gate d...

A novel in situ reaction between a ceria-doped zirconia interphase coating on Saphikon fibers and an outer alumina coating has resulted in the formation of oriented hexaaluminate platelets which can act as a low fracture energy interface barrier for crack deflection in oxide-oxide ceramic-matrix composites (CMCs). The reaction proceeds only in redu...

In this work, bulk and PZT thin films have been investigated with electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM). After depositing a thin carbon layer to negate the effects of charging, EBSD was able to map the grain and domain orientations across the ferroelectric materials, showing features smaller than 100 nm. I...

The functional properties of ferroelectric ceramic bulk or thin film materials are strongly influenced by their nanostructure, crystallographic orientation, and structural geometry. In this paper, we show how, by combining textural analysis, through electron backscattered diffraction, with piezoresponse force microscopy, quantitative measurements o...

ChemInform is a weekly Abstracting Service, delivering concise information at a glance that was extracted from about 100 leading journals. To access a ChemInform Abstract of an article which was published elsewhere, please select a “Full Text” option. The original article is trackable via the “References” option.

A methodology for the measurement of high field strain and polarisation responses of fine scale piezoelectric fibres is presented. Using analytical models, the response of the fibres is extracted from measurements made on 1–3 composites. Analytical modelling shows that composites with a high fibre volume fraction are desirable for accurate predicti...

The understanding of electric polarization dynamics is a complex problem of critical importance for both fundamental studies of ferroelectric materials and their applications to nonvolatile memories. In this paper we focus on second-order phase transition ferroelectrics, as defined in Landau—Devonshire framework, which display a particular free-ene...

X‐ray Magnetic Circular Dichroism (XMCD) spectra from a 5 μm polycrystalline Gd foil were measured in transmission across the Gd L 2,3 edges using the Multipurpose Unit for Synchronisation, Sequencing and Triggering (MUSST) card developed at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF). The circularly polarized x‐rays were produced by a d...

The recent trend in miniaturization of piezoelectrically active devices is driving research on size effects of these functional materials under reduced length scales. In this paper, we measure and model the generation of charge in thin piezoelectric structures under sinusoidal hydrostatic pressure and show how the subsequent thermally induced pyroe...

End of 2009 EURAMET, the European metrology organization opened a call to advance measurement science and technology in the field of Energy by providing funding for Joint Research Projects to be funded jointly by the European Commission and the participating countries as a part of the European Treaty. This paper describes a planned project; no tech...

The electrical properties of (1 − x)Pb(Mg1/3 Nb2/3)O3 − xPbTiO3 films with composition in the morphotropic phase boundary region around x = 0.35, submicrometre thickness and columnar microstructure, prepared on Si-based substrates by chemical solution deposition are presented and discussed in relation to the properties of coarse and fine grained ce...

A study of the temperature dependence of the electromechanical response of ferroelectric lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramics at high electric fields (up to 1.3 kV mm−1) is reported. Simultaneous measurements were performed of strain, electric field and polarization to form a complete response map from room temperature up to 200 °C. An electrostr...

The temperature dependence of the strain, electric field, and polarization of lead zirconate titanate ceramic under unipolar electric fields up to 1.3 kV mm−1 from −50 °C up to +200 °C is reported. An electrostrictive model is shown to describe the response to high levels of induced polarization and electric field below and above the ferroelectric...

Piezoelectric materials are used in many applications, at increasingly smaller scales. Methods of measuring their hydrostatic properties have been developed where the piezoelectric charge is produced as a result of a varying hydrostatic pressure generated within a sealed chamber. In this paper, the authors explore an anomalous generation of charge...

We present a computer simulation and theoretical study of composite multiferroics acting as magnetic field detectors. Our set-up consists of a layer of piezoelectric sandwiched between two magnetostrictive layers. When magnetic field is applied the magnetostrictive strains and this is passed onto the piezoelectric producing a detectable voltage. We...

The Laser Intensity Modulation Method (LIMM) has traditionally been used to characterise the depth dependence of polarisation of piezoelectric materials1. Although the technique is simple, it is difficult to extract the polarisation / depth data from the measured pyroelectric current because of the complex mathematics pertaining to the physics of t...

The advancements in materials science enabled more complex piezoelectric materials to be developed, including man-made ceramics and polymers. Ceramics are particularly important to the design and development of piezoelectrics. Piezoelectric materials are used in medical equipment, such as transducers in hearing aids, and for medical imaging. Piezoe...

Magneto-resistance is the most important characteristic of spintronic materials. This is usually measured using electrical contact probe testing. In this paper, we discuss a simple optical infrared (IR) experiment that allows the non-contact measurement of the magneto-resistance of spintronic materials and devices. The results are compared with cha...

Single perovskite polycrystalline Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–PbTiO3 (PMN-PT) thin films with PMN to PT ratios around the morphotropic phase boundary composition (070PMN-0.30PT, 0.65PMN-0.35PT, and 0.60PMN-0.40PT) have been prepared by chemical solution deposition (CSD). Air-stable and precipitate-free PMN and PT precursor sols were separately synthesized, an...