Measurements of piezoelectric coefficient of Pb(Zr, Ti)O3 thin film using a piezoelectric microcantilever

A piezoelectric cantilever is used to measure the magnitude of the effective longitudinal piezoelectric coefficient (d(33)) Of piezoelectric thin film. The cantilever is excited to its resonance frequency by the application of an ac voltage to its piezoelectric laver, and its tip is in cyclic contact with the top electrode of the sample. The surface motion of the sample due to the applied bias voltage is measured through monitoring the variations of the cantilever vibration amplitude, which are proportional to the piezoelectric current travelling though the cantilever, The d(33) Of a sol-gel-derived on lead zircornate titanate (PZT) nim is measured as 0.9 Angstrom/N.