Material properties are manipulated using rapid pulse application of energy in combination with applied electric or magnetic fields. When sintering, annealing or crystallizing a target film, the pulse repetition cycle can be constrained to ensure material temperature rises above and falls below the Curie temperature before the next energy pulse. This process results in enhanced material properties as compared to traditional techniques having a single, slow temperature excursion and subsequent application of the applied external field.

Material properties are manipulated using rapid pulse application of energy in combination with applied electric or magnetic fields. When sintering, annealing or crystallizing a target film, the pulse repetition cycle can be constrained to ensure material temperature rises above and falls below the Curie temperature before the next energy pulse. This process results in enhanced material properties as compared to traditional techniques having a single, slow temperature excursion and subsequent application of the applied external field.

Activity of piezoelectric material dimension and electrical properties can be changed with an applied stress. These variations are translated to a change in capacitance of the structure. Use of capacitance-voltage measurements for the extraction of double piezoelectric thin film material deposited at the two faces of a flexible steel sheet is described. Piezoelectric thin film materials are deposited using RF sputtering techniques. Gamry analyzer references 3000 is used to collect the capacitance-voltage measurements from both layers. A developed algorithm extracts directly the piezoelectric coefficients knowing film thickness, applied voltage, and capacitance ratio. The capacitance ratio is the ratio between the capacitances of the film when the applied field in antiparallel and parallel to the poling field direction, respectively. Piezoelectric bulk ceramic is used for calibration and validation by comparing the result with the reported values from literature. Extracted values using the current approach match well values extracted by existing methods.

Piezoelectric films including ionic liquids and methods of making piezoelectric films including ionic liquids. The resulting films have higher levels of beta phase and can be poled using external fields without additional treatment, such as stretching. The films are light-transparent. In some embodiments, the piezoelectric material is used to create piezo-electrophoretic films that can be patterned for use as security markers, authentication films, or sensors. The films are generally flexible. Some films are less than 100 μm in thickness. Electrophoretic displays formed from the piezoelectric films do not require an external power source.

Low-profile piezo-electrophoretic films and display films including low profile piezo-electrophoretic films. In some embodiments, the piezoelectric material of the piezo-electrophoretic films can be patterned with high-voltage electric fields after fabrication of the piezo-electrophoretic films. Such films are useful as security markers, authentication films, or sensors. The films are generally flexible. Some films are less than 100 μm in thickness. Displays formed from the films do not require an external power source.

A multilayer piezoelectric element includes a ceramic body formed by a piezoelectric ceramic, and having first and second end face facing a longitudinal direction, first and second principal faces facing a thickness direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction. A pair of external electrodes cover the first and second end faces, extend from the first and second end faces onto the first principal face via ridge parts connecting the end faces with the principal faces, and project in the thickness direction on the first principal face. Multiple internal electrodes are stacked inside the ceramic body and are connected alternately to the pair of external electrodes along the thickness direction. A surface electrode is provided on at least one of the first and second principal faces, and connected to the external electrode different from the one to which the internal electrode adjacent in the thickness direction is connected.

A ferroelectric material includes a mixed crystal having AlN and at least one nitride of a transition metal. The proportion of the nitride of the transition metal is selected such that a direction of an initial or spontaneous polarity of the ferroelectric material is switchable by applying a switchover voltage. The switchover voltage is below a breakdown voltage of the ferroelectric material.

A ferroelectric material includes a mixed crystal having AlN and at least one nitride of a transition metal. The proportion of the nitride of the transition metal is selected such that a direction of an initial or spontaneous polarity of the ferroelectric material is switchable by applying a switchover voltage. The switchover voltage is below a breakdown voltage of the ferroelectric material.

There are provided an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus and an operation method of an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus capable of performing polarization processing during the execution period of ultrasound diagnosis without affecting the image quality of an ultrasound image. In the ultrasound diagnostic apparatus and the operation method of the ultrasound diagnostic apparatus of the invention, a trigger generation circuit generates a trigger for starting polarization processing. After a trigger is given, during the execution period of ultrasound diagnosis, in a non-diagnosis period which is a period other than a period for acquiring an image of each frame and during which transmission of ultrasound waves and reception of reflected waves for performing ultrasound diagnosis are not performed, within each frame time in which an image of each frame of an ultrasound image is acquired, a control circuit performs polarization processing on a plurality of ultrasound transducers.

There are provided an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus and an operation method of an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus capable of performing polarization processing during the execution period of ultrasound diagnosis without affecting the image quality of an ultrasound image. In the ultrasound diagnostic apparatus and the operation method of the ultrasound diagnostic apparatus of the invention, a trigger generation circuit generates a trigger for starting polarization processing. After a trigger is given, during the execution period of ultrasound diagnosis, in a non-diagnosis period which is a period other than a period for acquiring an image of each frame and during which transmission of ultrasound waves and reception of reflected waves for performing ultrasound diagnosis are not performed, within each frame time in which an image of each frame of an ultrasound image is acquired, a control circuit performs polarization processing on a plurality of ultrasound transducers.