Photoresponsive Piezoelectric Ceramics for Multisource Energy Harvesting and Sensing

Among all kinetic energy harvesters, those made from piezoelectric materials are considered the most efficient when working at resonance of the electromechanical coupling process. High-performance piezoelectrics, such as piezoceramics and single crystals, are usually oxide perovskite ferroelectrics which also exhibit photovoltaic effect. This fact offers a unique opportunity to integrate light harvesters with the piezoelectric ones in a single material to achieve multi-source energy harvesting and/or sensing. Coupling multiple energy in one material promotes self-sufficiency and sustainability of energy harvesters and associated electronic systems. Strong piezoelectricity has been thought to inevitably lead to wide photonic band gaps, and vice versa, narrow band gaps eliminate piezoelectricity. This view, however, is being changed. This talk will walk through the achievements in recent years in terms of band gap engineering of piezoelectric materials with an emphasis on works carried out by the speaker’s research group, including piezoelectric compositions based on the potassium niobate and lead titanate perovskite solid solutions.