Flexoelectric fracture-filter effect in ferroelectrics

Abstract

The propagation front of a crack generates large strain gradients and it is therefore a strong source of gradient-induced polarization (flexoelectricity). Herein, we demonstrate that, in piezoelectric materials, a consequence of flexoelectricity is that crack propagation will be helped or hindered depending on whether it is parallel or antiparallel to the piezoelectric polar axis. This means that the theory of fracture physics can no longer assume mechanical symmetry in polar materials. The discovery of fracture asymmetry also has practical repercussions for the electromechanical fatigue of ferroelectrics and piezoelectric transducers, as well enabling a new degree of freedom for crack-based nanopatterning.

15 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Polarization Switching Dynamics Governed by Thermodynamic Nucleation Process in Ultrathin Ferroelectric Films
• Coercive fields in ultrathin BaTiO3 capacitors
• The origins of electromechanical indentation size effect in ferroelectrics
• Electric-field-tunable mechanical properties of relaxor ferroelectric single crystal measured by nanoindentation

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Ultrahigh flexoelectric effect of 3D interconnected porous polymers: modelling and verification
• Investigation of the cellular response to bone fractures: evidence for flexoelectricity
• Giant Polarization and Abnormal Flexural Deformation in Bent Freestanding Perovskite Oxides
• Ferroelectric 180 degree walls are mechanically softer than the domains they separate
• A New Meshless Fragile Points Method (FPM) With Minimum Unknowns at Each Point, For Flexoelectric Analysis Under Two Theories with Crack Propagation. Part II: Validation and discussion
• Nonlinear Breakdown of Antisymmetric Flexoelectric Coupling