Abstract
Our experiments demonstrate that alloying the cubic-phase into the wurtzite-phase results in clear mechanical softening and enhanced electromechanical coupling of . First-principle calculations reproduce experimental results well, and predict a maximum 270% increase in electromechanical coupling coefficient caused by (1) an enhanced piezoelectric response induced by the local strain of ions and (2) a structural flexibility of the alloy. Extensive calculations suggest that the substitutional neighbor - pairs in wurtzite are energetically stable along the axis, and avoid forming on the basal plane of the wurtzite structure due to the repulsion between them, which explains why films with high concentrations are difficult to fabricate in our sputtering experiments. Moreover, the neighbor - pair interactions also promote structural flexibility of , and are considered a cause for mechanical softening of .
2 More- Received 19 November 2020
- Revised 8 August 2021
- Accepted 7 September 2021
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.16.044009
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