In-situ neutron diffraction measurement of multilayer piezoelectric actuator under cyclic electric field

Kawasaki, Takuro   ; Harjo, S.   ; Gong, W.*; Aizawa, Kazuya  

Neutron diffraction has been increasingly used for the engineering study of materials. In order to extend the application scope of neutron diffraction in engineering study, a stroboscopic TOF neutron diffraction technique has been developed. In this study, the technique was applied for the evaluation of the piezoelectric material under cyclic electric fields. Unipolar sinusoidal electric fields with the frequencies of 0.05 Hz, 0.5 Hz, 5 Hz and 30 Hz were applied to a PZT-based multilayer piezoelectric actuator and the diffraction intensities were collected at the Engineering Materials Diffractometer TAKUMI in MLF of J-PARC. The lattice strain and the domain switching induced by the fields were analyzed and compared with the macroscopic deformation of the actuator.