Computational modeling of uniaxial antiferroelectric and
antiferroelectric-like actuator
Abstract
Recently, antiferroelectric and antiferroelectric-like materials have
regained interest for electronic devices, such as field-effect
transistors, memory, and transducers. Particularly, in
micro/nano-electromechanical coupling systems, such as actuators, these
innovative materials, with their peculiar phase transition between
antiferroelectric and ferroelectric phases, show promise in offering
large electro-strain, fast response, and low power consumption devices.
However, compared to the numerous computational models of ferroelectric
actuators, numerical modeling of antiferroelectric and
antiferroelectric-like actuators remains relatively unexplored. In this
paper, we propose a phenomenological model of a uni-axial
antiferroelectric and antiferroelectric-like actuators based on their
switching polarization behavior. Specifically, both the double
hysteresis loop of antiferroelectric materials and the pinched
hysteresis loop of antiferroelectric-like materials can be captured by
two hyperbolic tangent functions. This allows us to cast a
polarization-dependent strain and piezoelectric tensor into the
constitutive laws. The proposed model is then implemented into a finite
element framework, in which the voltage-induced deformation can be
solved using the Newton-Raphson procedure. Numerical examples of both
antiferroelectric and antiferroelectric-like actuators are illustrated
and compared with experimental data, showing our proposed model can
serve as a useful tool for the design and development of
antiferroelectric and antiferroelectric-like actuators.