Ultrahigh focal sensitivity in a relaxor ferroelectric crystal-based piezoelectric adaptive lens.

Traditional piezoelectric adaptive lenses (ALENS) are fabricated by piezoceramics with transparent liquids as the filling media. However, it is challenging to achieve high focal sensitivity and long-time robustness because of the low piezoelectricity of ceramics as well as the evaporation and leakage of the liquids. To overcome the above-mentioned issues, we design a piezoelectric lens based on a radial extension-arching mode by using polydimethylsiloxane films and Pb(In_1/2Nb_1/2)O₃–Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃–PbTiO₃ (PIMNT) relaxor ferroelectric single crystals to replace the transparent liquids and Pb(Zr, Ti)O₃ (PZT) ceramics, respectively. Due to the ultrahigh piezoelectric properties (d₃₃ ∼ 1500 pC N⁻¹ and d₃₁ ∼ 730 pC N⁻¹) of the PIMNT crystals and the optimized radial extension-arching structure, an ultrahigh focal sensitivity (8.5 cm V⁻¹ and a fast response time (∼10²μs) is achieved, outperforming conventional ALENS based on piezoceramic actuators (∼10³ μs and ∼10⁻¹ cm V⁻¹) and dielectric elastomer actuators (∼10⁵ μs and ∼10⁻² cm V⁻¹). The largest output displacement of our designed ALENS is up to 53.6 μm at 4.2 kHz under 80 V_pp, and its focus is in the range of 57.44 cm to ∞. Furthermore, its performance remains unchanged after 4 × 10⁷ vibration cycles, indicating its long-time robustness. This work sheds light on the design of advanced adaptive optical systems, where an ultrahigh focal sensitivity and a fast response are required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]