Park Joonbum, Bartlett Jack M, Noad Hilary M L, Stern Alexander L, Barber Mark E, König Markus, Hosoi Suguru, Shibauchi Takasada, Mackenzie Andrew P, Steppke Alexander, Hicks Clifford W
Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Nöthnitzer Straße 40, 01187 Dresden, Germany.
Department of Advanced Materials Science, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8561, Japan.
Rev Sci Instrum. 2020 Aug 1;91(8):083902. doi: 10.1063/5.0008829.
Response to uniaxial stress has become a major probe of electronic materials. Tunable uniaxial stress may be applied using piezoelectric actuators, and so far two methods have been developed to couple samples to actuators. In one, actuators apply force along the length of a free, beam-like sample, allowing very large strains to be achieved. In the other, samples are affixed directly to piezoelectric actuators, allowing the study of mechanically delicate materials. Here, we describe an approach that merges the two: thin samples are affixed to a substrate, which is then pressurized uniaxially using piezoelectric actuators. Using this approach, we demonstrate the application of large elastic strains to mechanically delicate samples: the van der Waals-bonded material FeSe and a sample of CeAuSb that was shaped with a focused ion beam.
