Modelling of Nonlocal Effects in Electromechanical Nano-Switches

TL;DR

This paper models nonlocal electromechanical effects, especially flexoelectricity, in nanoscale dielectric switches, incorporating strain gradient effects into classical beam and plate theories to better understand their behavior.

Contribution

It introduces a novel modeling approach that includes flexoelectric effects via strain gradient coupling in classical mechanical theories for nano-switches.

Findings

Flexoelectric effects become dominant at nanoscale dimensions.

Derived equations of motion for beam and plate models including flexoelectricity.

Enhanced understanding of electromechanical coupling in nano-scale devices.

Abstract

Dielectric nano-swithes made of the materials that exhibit piezoelectric and/or flexoelectric properties with significant electro-mechanical coupling are considered. In this case, a nonuniform strain field may locally break inversion symmetry and induce polarization even in nonpiezoelectrics. At reducing dimensions to the nanoscale, the flexoelectric effect demonstrates the nonlocality of the dielectric materials and plays more significant role than piezoelectric effect. The flexoelectric effect is included into consideration via additional term coupling strain gradient and polarization in the electric enthalpy density. The equations of motion of the improved Euler-Bernoulli and Timoshenko beam models, and 2-D plate theory have been obtained.