An electro-mechanical behavior enhancement method: geometric design with flexoelectricity

Abstract

Electro-mechanical coupling materials and structures are generally applied in sensing, mechanical actuating and energy harvesting due to the advantages like light-weight, high-frequency response, and electromagnetic interference. Electro-mechanical coupling properties are researched for higher energy converting efficiency. The mechanism of the piezoelectric/converse piezoelectric effect has been studied and its electro-mechanical property has been largely increased. In this work, we propose a different method: the geometric design with converse flexoelectricity is adopted to enhance the electro-mechanical behavior of dielectric structures. This approach provides a converse piezoelectric effect enhancement method through geometric design with flexoelectricity, and may further widen the electro-mechanical application range in both piezoelectric and non-piezoelectric materials.