Comparison of actuator properties for piezoelectric and electrostrictive materials

The field induced strain has been measured for a broad variety of piezoelectric and electrostrictive actuator materials. These measurements have been made under AC drive conditions with variations in DC bias, peak to peak voltage, and prestress. Data for three types of PMN-PT electrostrictors, hard and soft piezoelectric ceramics, and PZN-PT single crystal have been collected. For smart structures applications fine grain Type II ceramic and PZN- PT single crystals were found to have the best combination of moderate to high strain, low to moderate hysteresis, and resistance to stress depoling. Electrostrictive ceramics used for high frequency transducers were found to exhibit some stress induced domain reorientation effects that depended on drive conditions and operating temperature. These effects became more pronounced for electrostrictors with high lead titanate content. Epoxy bonded stacks have been constructed form some of the materials to determine the merits of materials properties for actuator performance. This work has shown that fine grain Type II ceramics have many advantages for high authority stack actuators including high strain energy density and lifetimes > 109 cycles at 100 percent rated peak-to-peak voltage.© (2000) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.