Internship and thesis proposals
High-throughput piezoresponse force microscopy of perovskite piezoelectrics

Domaines
Condensed matter

Type of internship
Expérimental
Description
The most widely used piezoelectric material today is lead zirconate titanate (PZT), due to its excellent all-around performance and processability. However, replacing PZT with lead-free alternatives is of political and economic interest. In the search for new lead-free piezoelectric materials, the perovskite crystal structure offers an unmatched chemical and functional flexibility. Some of the most promising high-d33 lead-free material systems that crystallize in the perovskite structure are extremely chemically disordered, and it is unlikely that the best-performing composition has been found. We are developing high-throughput synthesis and characterization methods in order to sample from this large compositional space and perform Bayesian Optimization to propose new compositions with the aim of finding the highest possible d33 in the chemical space we are exploring. In this work, we plan to use atomic force microscopy with the piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) option to measure the d33 of the samples we synthesize in the lab. The PFM technique is sensitive to artefacts, and we need to develop a robust method for data collection and analysis to be able to use the results from this tool in a quantitative manner. Candidates with background and/or interest in condensed matter physics, instrumentation, and data treatment are welcome to apply.

Contact
Solveig Aamlid
Laboratory : PMC - 7643
Team : Chimie du Solide
Team Website
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