Piezoelectric and flexoelectric effects of DNA adsorbed films on microcantilevers

DNA-based biosensors have played a huge role in many areas,especially in current global coronavirus outbreak.However,there is a great difficulty in the characterization of piezoelectric and flexoelectric coefficients of the nanoscale DNA film,because the existing experimental methods for hard materials are almost invalid.In addition,the relevant theoretical models for DNA films only consider a single effect without clarifying the difference between the two electromechanical effects on device detection signals.This work aims to present multiscale models for DNA-microcantilever experiments to clarify the competitive mechanism in piezoelectric and flexoelectric effects of DNA films on detection signals.First,a Poisson-Boltzmann(PB)equation is used to predict the potential distribution due to the competition between fixed phosphate groups and mobile salt ions in DNA films.Second,a macroscopic piezoelectric/flexoelectric constitutive equation of the DNA film and a mesoscopic free energy model of the DNA solution are combined to analytically predict the electromechanical coefficients of the DNA film and the relevant microcantilever signals by the deformation equivalent method and Zhang’s two-variable method.Finally,the effects of detection conditions on microscopic interactions,electromechanical coupling coefficients,and deflection signals are studied.Numerical results not only agree well with the experimental observations,but also reveal that the piezoelectric and flexoelectric effects of the DNA film should be equivalently modeled when interpreting microcantilever detection signals.These insights might provide opportunities for the microcantilever biosensor with high sensitivity.

Effective electromechanical coupling coefficient of high-overtone bulk acoustic resonator

A high-overtone bulk acoustic resonator （HBAR） is composed of a substrate, a piezoelectric film and upper and lower electrodes, the influences of their structure parameter （thickness） and performance parameter （characteristic impedance） on effective electromechani- cal coupling coefficient K^2eff are investigated systematically. The relationship between K^2eff and these parameters is obtained by a lumped parameter equivalent circuit instead of distributed parameter equivalent circuit near the resonant frequency, and K^2eff at the resonance frequency closest to the given frequency is analyzed. The results show that K^2eff declines rapidly and oscillatorily with the continuous increase of the substrate thickness when the piezoelectric film thickness is fixed, and decreases inversely proportion to the thickness when the substrate thick-ness is greater than a certain value. With the ratio of the characteristic impedance of the substrate to the piezoelectric layer increasing, the maximum of K^2eff obtained from the vari- ation curve of K^2eff with the continuous increase of the piezoelectric film thickness decreases rapidly before reaching the minimum value, and later increases slowly. Fused silica with low impedance is appropriate as the substrate of HBAR to get a larger K^2eff. Compared with Al electrode, Au electrode can obtain larger K^2eff when the appropriate electrode thickness is selected. The revealed laws above mentioned provide the theoretical basis for optimizing parameters of HBAR.

Theoretical analysis and experimental validation of radial cascaded composite ultrasonic transducer

A radial cascaded composite ultrasonic transducer is analyzed.The transducer consists of three short metal tubes and two radially polarized piezoelectric ceramic short tubes arranged alternately along the radial direction.The short metal tubes and the piezoelectric ceramic short tubes are connected in parallel electrically and in series mechanically,which can multiply the input sound power and sound intensity.Based on the theory of plane stress,the electro-mechanical equivalent circuit of radial vibration of the transducer is derived firstly.The resonance/anti-resonance frequency equation and the expression of the effective electromechanical coupling coefficient are obtained.Excellent electromechanical characteristics are determined by changing the radial geometric dimensions.Two prototypes of the transducers are designed and manufactured to support the analytical theory.It is concluded that the theoretical resonance/anti-resonance frequencies are consistent with the numerical and experimental results.When R_(2) is at certain values,both the anti-resonance frequency and effective electromechanical coupling coefficient corresponding to the second mode have maximal values.The radial cascaded composite ultrasonic transducer is expected to be used in the fields of ultrasonic water treatment and underwater acoustics.