Giant piezoelectricity in oxide thin films with nanopillar structure

Abstract

Simple strain enhancement Piezoelectric materials are important as sensors and transducers for applications such as ultrasonics. Liu et al. discovered nanopillar regions in a sodium-niobium-oxide film that substantially improve the piezoelectric properties (see the Perspective by Bassiri-Gharb). These nanopillar regions reverse where the cations and anions are located in the crystal structure, with a distinctive boundary in between. This difference in structure results in a strain-sensitive polarity that enhances the piezoelectric properties in a chemically simple material. Science this issue p. 292 ; see also p. 252