Ultrahigh Electrostrictive Effect in Lead-Free Sodium Bismuth Titanate-Based Relaxor Ferroelectric Thick Film.

In recent years, the development of environmentally friendly, lead-free ferroelectric films with prominent electrostrictive effects have been a key area of focus due to their potential applications in micro-actuators, sensors, and transducers for advanced microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). This work investigated the enhanced electrostrictive effect in lead-free sodium bismuth titanate-based relaxor ferroelectric films. The films, composed of (BiNa)BaSrTiO (BNBST, x = 0.02, 0.06, and 0.11), with thickness around 1 μm, were prepared using a sol-gel method on Pt/TiO/SiO/Si substrates. By varying the Ba content, the crystal structure, morphology, and electrical properties, including dielectric, ferroelectric, strain, and electromechanical performance, were investigated. The films exhibited a single pseudocubic structure without preferred orientation. A remarkable strain response ( > 0.24%) was obtained in the films (x = 0.02, 0.06) with the coexistence of nonergodic and ergodic relaxor phases. Further, in the x = 0.11 thick films with an ergodic relaxor state, an ultrahigh electrostrictive coefficient of 0.32 m/C was achieved. These findings highlight the potential of BNBST films as high-performance, environmentally friendly electrostrictive films for advanced microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and electronic devices.