Piezoelectric and Pyroelectric Energy Harvesting from Lithium Niobate Films

Abstract

Abstract Single-crystalline LiNbO3 films were studied as a pyro- and piezo-electric transducer for energy harvesting applications. Two types of devices: piezoelectric cantilever (PiEH) and pyroelectric chip (ThEH) were microfabricated. Different types of characterization were done, starting from a comparison of finite element method (FEM) simulated eigen-frequencies of cantilever beam and optical vibrometer measurements. According to electrical characterization, resonance frequencies of two cantilevers with different thickness were 1.26 kHz and 485 Hz with generated spontaneous power of 14 μW and 4 μW at 275-300 kΩ, respectively. Finally thermal characterization of pyroelectric samples showed voltage amplitudes ranging from 1 to 2.5mV in the temperature range of 50-200 °C.