Phononic Crystal Tunable via Ferroelectric Phase Transition

Chaowei Xu, Feiyan Cai, Shuhong Xie, Fei Li, Rong Sun, Xianzhu Fu, Rengen Xiong, Yi Zhang, Hairong Zheng, and Jiangyu Li

Phys. Rev. Applied 4, 034009 – Published 25 September 2015

Abstract

Phononic crystals (PCs) consisting of periodic materials with different acoustic properties have potential applications in functional devices. To realize more smart functions, it is desirable to actively control the properties of PCs on demand, ideally within the same fabricated system. Here, we report a tunable PC made of ${Ba}_{0.7} {Sr}_{0.3} Ti O_{3}$ (BST) ceramics, wherein a 20-K temperature change near room temperature results in a 20% frequency shift in the transmission spectra induced by a ferroelectric phase transition. The tunability phenomenon is attributed to the structure-induced resonant excitation of $A_{0}$ and $A_{1}$ Lamb modes that exist intrinsically in the uniform BST plate, while these Lamb modes are sensitive to the elastic properties of the plate and can be modulated by temperature in a BST plate around the Curie temperature. The study finds opportunities for creating tunable PCs and enables smart temperature-tuned devices such as the Lamb wave filter or sensor.

Received 3 April 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.4.034009

Authors & Affiliations

Chaowei Xu^1,2,3, Feiyan Cai^2,4, Shuhong Xie¹, Fei Li^2,3, Rong Sun⁵, Xianzhu Fu⁵, Rengen Xiong⁶, Yi Zhang⁶, Hairong Zheng^2,3,4,*, and Jiangyu Li^3,7,†

¹Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Materials and Application Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan 411105, China
²Paul C. Lauterbur Research Center for Biomedical Imaging, Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China
³Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Nanobiomechanics, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China
⁴Beijing Center for Mathematics and Information Interdisciplinary Sciences, Beijing 100048, China
⁵Center for Advanced Materials, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China
⁶Ordered Matter Science Research Centre, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China
⁷Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, 98195-2600, USA