Butterfly Change in Electric Field-Dependent Young's Modulus: Bulge Test and Phase Field Model

The field-dependent Young's modulus shows a promising application in the design and miniaturization of phononic crystals, tunable mechanical resonators, interdigital transducers, etc. With the multifield bulge-test instrument developed by our group, the electric field-tunable elastic modulus of ferroelectric films has been studied experimentally. A butterfly change in the Young's modulus of lead titanate zirconate (PZT) film under biaxial tensile stress state with electric field has been discovered for the first time. Based on the phase field model, an electromechanical coupling model is constructed, and a case of PZT ferroelectric film subjected to a vertical electric field and horizontal tensile strains is simulated. The numerical results show that the change in the Young's modulus is proportional to the variation of volume fraction of 90-deg domain switching under a pure tensile strain. It is the constraint of 90-deg domain switching by the electric field that contributes to the butterfly change in the elastic modulus.