Piezoelectric Actuation of Graphene-Coated Polar Structures

Ferroelectric materials based on lead zirconate titanate (PZT) are widely used as sensors and actuators because of their strong piezoelectric activity. However, their application is limited because of the high processing temperature, brittleness, lack of conformal deposition, and a limited possibility to be integrated with the microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). Recent studies on the piezoelectricity in the 2-D materials have demonstrated their potential in these applications, essentially due to their flexibility and integrability with the MEMS. In this work, we deposited a few layer graphene (FLG) on the amorphous oxidized Si3N4 membranes and studied their piezoelectric response by sensitive laser interferometry and rigorous finite-element modeling (FEM) analysis. Modal analysis by FEM and comparison with the experimental results show that the driving force for the piezoelectric-like response can be a polar interface layer formed between the residual oxygen in Si3N4 and the FLG. The response was about 14 nm/V at resonance and could be further enhanced by adjusting the geometry of the device. These phenomena are fully consistent with the earlier piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) observations of the piezoelectricity of the graphene on SiO2 and open up an avenue for using graphene-coated structures in the MEMS. © 1986-2012 IEEE.This work was supported in part by the Russian Foundation or Fundamental Research under Grant 16-29-14050, in part by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation in the framework of the Increase Competitiveness Program of MISiS under Grant K2-2019-015, in part by the Project CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials financed by national funds through the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology/MCTES under Grants UIDB/50011/2020 and UIDP/50011/2020, and in part by the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is a Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility. The work was also supported by Government of the Russian Federation (Act 211, Agreement 02.A03.21.0006) and by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (state task FEUZ-2020-0054). The equipment of the Ural Center for Shared Use “Modern nanotechnology” UrFU was used. The work of Yakov Kopelevich was supported in part by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) and in part by the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de S. Paulo (FAPESP) (Brazil)