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The study of the properties of ferroelectric materials against irradiation has a long history. However, anti−irradiation research on the ferroelectric domain has not been carried out. In this paper, the irradiation of switched domain structure is innovatively proposed. The switched domain of 700 nm lithium niobate (LiNbO3, LN) thin film remains stable after gamma irradiation from 1 krad to 10 Mrad, which was prepared by piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM). In addition, the changing law of domain wall resistivity is explored through different sample voltages, and it is verified that the irradiated domain wall conductivity is still larger than the domain. This domain wall current (DWC) property can be applied to storage, logic, sensing, and other devices. Based on these, a ferroelectric domain irradiation resistance model is established, which explains the reason at an atomic level. The results open a possibility for exploiting ferroelectric materials as the foundation in the application of space and nuclear fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a cutting-edge technology, animal robots based on living organisms are being extensively studied, with potential for diverse applications in the fields of neuroscience, national security, and civil rescue. However, it remains a significant challenge to reliably control the animal robots with the objective of protecting their long-term survival, and this has seriously hindered their practical implementation. To address this issue, this work explored the use of a bio-friendly neurostimulation system that includes integrated stimulation electrodes together with a remote wireless stimulation circuit to control the moving behavior of rat robots. The integrated electrodes were implanted simultaneously in four stimulation sites, including the medial forebrain bundle (MFB) and primary somatosensory cortex, barrel field (S1BF). The control system was able to provide flexibility in adjusting the following four stimulation parameters: waveform, amplitude, frequency, and duration time. The optimized parameters facilitated the successful control of the rat's locomotion, including forward movement and left and right turns. After training for a few cycles, the rat robots could be guided along a designated route to complete the given mission in a maze. Moreover, it was found that the rat robots could survive for more than 20 days with the control system implanted. These findings will ensure the sustained and reliable operation of the rat robots, laying a robust foundation for advances in animal robot regulation technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In micron or nano smart sensing systems, piezoelectric cantilever beams are distributed as major components in microsensors, actuators, and energy harvesters. This paper investigates the performance of four cantilever beam devices with "electric-force" conversion based on the inverse piezoelectric effect of lithium niobate (LiNbO3, LN) single-crystal materials. A new compact piezoelectric smart device model is proposed, designed as a single mass block connected by four beams, where devices exhibit smaller lateral errors (0.39–0.41%). The relationship between the displacement characteristics of cantilever beams and driving voltage was researched by applying excitation signals. The results show that the device has the maximum displacement at a first-order intrinsic frequency (fosc = 11.338 kHz), while the displacement shows a good linear relationship (R2 = 0.998) with driving voltage. The square wave signals of the same amplitude have greater "electrical-force" conversion efficiency. The output displacement can reach 12 nm, which is much higher than the output displacement with sinusoidal excitation. In addition, the relative displacement deviation of devices can be maintained within ±1% under multiple cycles of electrical signal loading. The small size, high reliability, and ultra-stability of Si–LN ferroelectric single-crystal cantilever beam devices with lower vibration amplitudes are promising for nanopositioning techniques in microscopy, diagnostics, and high-precision manufacturing applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel microwave photonic filter (MPF) based on a single longitudinal mode Brillouin laser achieved by parity time (PT) symmetry mode selection is proposed, and its unparalleled ultra-narrow bandwidth as low as to sub-kHz together with simple and agile tuning performance is experimentally verified. The Brillouin fiber laser ring resonator is cascaded with a PT symmetric system to achieve this MPF. Wherein, the Brillouin laser resonator is excited by a 5 km single mode fiber to generate Brillouin gain, and the PT symmetric system is configured with Polarization Beam Splitter (PBS) and polarization controller (PC) to achieve PT symmetry. Thanks to the significant enhancement of the gain difference between the main mode and the edge mode when the polarization state PT symmetry system breaks, a single mode oscillating Brillouin laser is generated. Through the selective amplification of sideband modulated signals by ultra-narrow linewidth Brillouin single mode laser gain, the MPF with ultra-narrow single passband performance is obtained. By simply tuning the central wavelength of the stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) pumped laser to adjust the Brillouin oscillation frequency, the gain position of the Brillouin laser can be shifted, thereby achieving flexible tunability. The experimental results indicate that the MPF proposed in this paper achieves a single pass band narrow to 72 Hz and the side mode rejection ratio of more than 18 dB, with a center frequency tuning range of 0–20 GHz in the testing range of vector network analysis, which means that the MPF possesses ultra high spectral resolution and enormous potential application value in the domain of ultra fine microwave spectrum filtering such as radar imaging and electronic countermeasures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The substrate impurities scattering will lead to unstable temperature-sensitive behavior and poor linearity in graphene temperature sensors. And this can be weakened by suspending the graphene structure. Herein, we report a graphene temperature sensing structure, with suspended graphene membranes fabricated on the cavity and non-cavity SiO2/Si substrate, using monolayer, few-layer, and multilayer graphene. The results show that the sensor provides direct electrical readout from temperature to resistance transduction by the nano piezoresistive effect in graphene. And the cavity structure can weaken the substrate impurity scattering and thermal resistance effect, which results in better sensitivity and wide-range temperature sensing. In addition, monolayer graphene is almost no temperature sensitivity. And the few-layer graphene temperature sensitivity, lower than that of the multilayer graphene cavity structure (3.50%/°C), is 1.07%/°C. This work demonstrates that piezoresistive in suspended graphene membranes can effectively enhance the sensitivity and widen the temperature sensor range in NEMS temperature sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphene-based metamaterials have been widely applied in optoelectronic devices, optical modulators, and chemical sensors due to the outstanding tunability and optical response in the terahertz (THz) region. Here, tunable THz metamaterial absorbers based on patterned graphene are designed, fabricated, and modulated. The proposed metamaterial absorbers are constructed by the top layer of patterned graphene arrays and the aluminum (Al) film separated by polyimide (PI). The different THz absorption spectra can be acquired by changing the patterns of graphene. In order to verify the simulation results, a series of tests were conducted by THz time-domain spectrometer (THz-TDS) systems. The proposed absorbers are able to be insensitive to the angle of the incident wave. Besides, chemical doping is applied to turn the Fermi level of graphene and the absorption performance is promoted with the increase of the Fermi level. The experimental results have been demonstrated to have associated resonant peaks with the simulation results. The aim of this paper is to exhibit a systematic study on graphene-based THz metamaterial absorbers, including the simulation and experiments. By comparing the simulation and experimental results, it is useful to clarify the relevant theories and manufacturing processes. The work will provide a further step in the development of high-performance terahertz devices, including tunable absorbers, sensors, and electro-optic switches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to their excellent capabilities to generate and sense ultrasound signals in an efficient and well-controlled way at the microscale, piezoelectric micromechanical ultrasonic transducers (PMUTs) are being widely used in specific systems, such as medical imaging, biometric identification, and acoustic wireless communication systems. The ongoing demand for high-performance and adjustable PMUTs has inspired the idea of manipulating PMUTs by voltage. Here, PMUTs based on AlN thin films protected by a SiO2 layer of 200 nm were fabricated using a standard MEMS process with a resonant frequency of 505.94 kHz, a −6 dB bandwidth (BW) of 6.59 kHz, and an electromechanical coupling coefficient of 0.97%. A modification of 4.08 kHz for the resonant frequency and a bandwidth enlargement of 60.2% could be obtained when a DC bias voltage of −30 to 30 V was applied, corresponding to a maximum resonant frequency sensitivity of 83 Hz/V, which was attributed to the stress on the surface of the piezoelectric film induced by the external DC bias. These findings provide the possibility of receiving ultrasonic signals within a wider frequency range, which will play an important role in underwater three-dimensional imaging and nondestructive testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multifunctional, integrated, and reusable operating platforms are highly sought after in biochemical analysis and detection systems. In this study, we demonstrated a novel detachable, reusable acoustic tweezer manipulation platform that is flexible and versatile. The free interchangeability of different detachable microchannel devices on the acoustic tweezer platform was achieved by adding a waveguide layer (glass) and a coupling layer (polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) polymer film). We designed and demonstrated the detachable multifunctional acoustic tweezer platform with three cell manipulation capabilities. In Demo I, the detachable acoustic tweezer platform is demonstrated to have the capability for parallel processing and enrichment of the sample. In Demo II, the detachable acoustic tweezer platform with capability for precise cell alignment is demonstrated. In Demo III, it was demonstrated that the detachable acoustic tweezer platform has the capability for the separation and purification of cells. Through experiments, our acoustic tweezer platform has good acoustic retention ability, reusability, and stability. More capabilities can be expanded in the future. It provides a simple, economical, and multifunctional reusable operating platform solution for biochemical analysis and detection systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The seeking of resonator with high Q and low insertion loss is attractive for critical sensing scenes based on the surface acoustic wave (SAW). In this work, 128° YX LiNbO3-based SAW resonators were utilized to optimize the output performance through IDT structure parameters. Once the pairs of IDTs, the acoustic aperture, the reflecting grid logarithm, and the gap between IDT and reflector are changed, a better resonance frequency of 224.85 MHz and a high Q of 1364.5 were obtained. All the results demonstrate the structure parameters design is helpful for the performance enhancement with regard to SAW resonators, especially for designing and fabricating high-Q devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a basis for biometric and chemical analysis, issues of how to dilute or concentrate substances such as particles or cells to specific concentrations have long been of interest to researchers. In this study, travelling surface acoustic wave (TSAW)-based devices with three frequencies (99.1, 48.8, 20.4 MHz) have been used to capture the suspended Polystyrene (PS) microspheres of various sizes (5, 20, 40 μm) in sessile droplets, which are controlled by acoustic field-induced fluid vortex (acoustic vortex) and aggregate into clusters or rings with particles. These phenomena can be explained by the interaction of three forces, which are drag force caused by ASF, ARF caused by Leaky-SAW and varying centrifugal force. Eventually, a novel approach of free transition between the particle ring and cluster was approached via modulating the acoustic amplitude of TSAW. By this method, multilayer particles agglomerate with 20 μm wrapped around 40 μm and 20 μm wrapped around 5 μm can be obtained, which provides the possibility to dilute or concentrate the particles to a specific concentration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a great challenge to detect in-situ high-frequency vibration signals for extreme environment applications. A highly sensitive and robust vibration sensor is desired. Among the many piezoelectric materials, single-crystal lithium niobate (LiNbO3) could be a good candidate to meet the demand. In this work, a novel type of micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) vibration sensor based on a single crystalline LiNbO3 thin film is demonstrated. Firstly, the four-cantilever-beam MEMS vibration sensor was designed and optimized with the parametric method. The structural dependence on the intrinsic frequency and maximum stress was obtained. Then, the vibration sensor was fabricated using standard MEMS processes. The practical intrinsic frequency of the as-presented vibration sensor was 5.175 kHz, which was close to the calculated and simulated frequency. The dynamic performance of the vibration sensor was tested on a vibration platform after the packaging of the printed circuit board. The effect of acceleration was investigated, and it was observed that the output charge was proportional to the amplitude of the acceleration. As the loading acceleration amplitude is 10 g and the frequency is in the range of 20 to 2400 Hz, the output charge amplitude basically remains stable for the frequency range from 100 Hz to 1400 Hz, but there is a dramatic decrease around 1400 to 2200 Hz, and then it increases significantly. This should be attributed to the significant variation of the damping coefficient near 1800 Hz. Meanwhile, the effect of the temperature on the output was studied. The results show the nearly linear dependence of the output charge on the temperature. The presented MEMS vibration sensors were endowed with a high output performance, linear dependence and stable sensitivity, and could find potential applications for the detection of wide-band high-frequency vibration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An integration technology for wafer-level LiNbO3 single-crystal thin film on Si has been achieved. The optimized spin-coating speed of PI (polyimide) adhesive is 3500 rad/min. According to Fourier infrared analysis of the chemical state of the film baked under different conditions, a high-quality PI film that can be used for wafer-level bonding is obtained. A high bonding strength of 11.38 MPa is obtained by a tensile machine. The bonding interface is uniform, completed and non-porous. After the PI adhesive bonding process, the LiNbO3 single-crystal was lapped by chemical mechanical polishing. The thickness of the 100 mm diameter LiNbO3 can be decreased from 500 to 10 μm without generating serious cracks. A defect-free and tight bonding interface was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy. X-ray diffraction results show that the prepared LiNbO3 single-crystal thin film has a highly crystalline quality. Heterogeneous integration of LiNbO3 single-crystal thin film on Si is of great significance to the fabrication of MEMS devices for in-situ measurement of space-sensing signals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphene nanostructures are widely perceived as a promising material for fundamental components; their high-performance electronic properties offer the potential for the construction of graphene nanoelectronics. Numerous researchers have paid attention to the fabrication of graphene nanostructures, based on both top-down and bottom-up approaches. However, there are still some unavoidable challenges, such as smooth edges, uniform films without folds, and accurate dimension and location control. In this work, a direct writing method was reported for the in-situ preparation of a high-resolution graphene nanostructure of controllable size (the minimum feature size is about 15 nm), which combines the advantages of e-beam lithography and copper-catalyzed growth. By using the Fourier infrared absorption test, we found that the hydrogen and oxygen elements were disappearing due to knock-on displacement and the radiolysis effect. The graphene crystal is also formed via diffusion and the local heating effect between the e-beam and copper substrate, based on the Raman spectra test. This simple process for the in-situ synthesis of graphene nanostructures has many promising potential applications, including offering a way to make nanoelectrodes, NEMS cantilever resonant structures, nanophotonic devices and so on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In situ measurements of sensing signals in space platforms requires that the micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) sensors be located directly at the point to be measured and in contact with the subject to be measured. Traditional radiation-tolerant silicon-based MEMS sensors cannot acquire spatial signals directly. Compared to silicon-based structures, LiNbO3 single crystalline has wide application prospects in the aerospace field owing to its excellent corrosion resistance, low-temperature resistance and radiation resistance. In our work, 4-inch LiNbO3 and LiNbO3/Cr/Au wafers are fabricated to silicon substrate by means of a polyimide bonding method, respectively. The low-temperature bonding process (≤ 100 °C) is also useful for heterostructure to avoid wafer fragmentation results from a coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) mismatch. The hydrophilic polyimide surfaces result from the increasing of -OH groups were acquired based on contact angle and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy characterizations. A tight and defect-free bonding interface was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy. More importantly, benefiting from low-temperature tolerance and radiation-hardened properties of polyimide material, the bonding strength of the heterostructure based on oxygen plasma activation achieved 6.582 MPa and 3.339 MPa corresponding to room temperature and ultra-low temperature (≈ −263.15 °C), which meets the bonding strength requirements of aerospace applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a promising functional material, ferroelectric Pb(ZrxTi1−x)O3 (PZT) are widely used in many optical and electronic devices. Remarkably, as the film thickness decreases, the materials' properties deviate gradually from those of solid materials. In this work, multilayered PZT thin films with different thicknesses are fabricated by Sol-Gel technique. The thickness effect on its microstructure, ferroelectric, and optical properties has been studied. It is found that the surface quality and the crystalline structure vary with the film thickness. Moreover, the increasing film thickness results in a significant increase in remnant polarization, due to the interfacial layer effect. Meanwhile, the dielectric loss and tunability are strongly dependent on thickness. In terms of optical properties, the refractive index of PZT films increase with the increasing thickness, and the photorefractive effect are also influenced by the thickness, which could all be related to the film density and photovoltaic effect. Besides, the band gap decreases as the film thickness increases. This work is significant for the application of PZT thin film in optical and optoelectronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a promising functional material, ferroelectric Pb(Zr x Ti 1- x )O 3 (PZT) are widely used in many optical and electronic devices. Remarkably, as the film thickness decreases, the materials' properties deviate gradually from those of solid materials. In this work, multilayered PZT thin films with different thicknesses are fabricated by Sol-Gel technique. The thickness effect on its microstructure, ferroelectric, and optical properties has been studied. It is found that the surface quality and the crystalline structure vary with the film thickness. Moreover, the increasing film thickness results in a significant increase in remnant polarization, due to the interfacial layer effect. Meanwhile, the dielectric loss and tunability are strongly dependent on thickness. In terms of optical properties, the refractive index of PZT films increase with the increasing thickness, and the photorefractive effect are also influenced by the thickness, which could all be related to the film density and photovoltaic effect. Besides, the band gap decreases as the film thickness increases. This work is significant for the application of PZT thin film in optical and optoelectronic devices.