High Speed Operation of the Composite Shape Memory Effect Microactuator: Computer Modelling and Experiment

Abstract

The kinetic properties and high-speed processes during phase transformations and related effects of giant deformations in micro- and nanosamples of functional nanomaterials in alternating electric and thermal fields have been studied. Theoretically and experimentally studied the processes of controlled deformation (activation) and heat distribution at small sample sizes, in which the manifestation of such phenomena as thermoelastic martensitic phase transition and associated shape memory effect (SME) is possible. Using the focused ion beam method, samples of composite nanotweezers based on the Ti <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> NiCu alloy with SME were created. A computing model of the speedwork of a composite actuator has been constructed and the dependence of the maximum activation frequency on the linear dimensions of the micro-actuator has been determined. An experimental study of the speedwork of the microactuator was carried out using scanning electron microscopy. The activation of the microactuator was achieved by heating by passing electric current pulses through it. The operation of the microactuator at frequencies up to 8 kHz is demonstrated. A design of the nanotweezers has been created, which for the first time makes it possible to work with thermal drift almost zero (a few tens nanometers), which is a very important aspect in the three-dimensional manipulation of the nanoobjects.