The experimental analysis on the driving characteristics of photo response torsion actuator

The lanthanum-doped lead zirconate titanate ceramic is a well-known photostrictive material and has been studied extensively as wireless photo-controlled microactuators for its characteristic of photostrictive effect. However, the hysteresis phenomenon between photovoltage and photo-induced deformation has seriously hindered the application of the high-frequency dynamic field. The primary purpose of this article is to propose a photo response torsion actuator driven by opto-electrostatic hybrid driving method based on lanthanum-doped lead zirconate titanate ceramic to achieve the goal of rapid response regardless of the hysteresis phenomenon. To this end, this study observed the driving voltage, the relationship between the photovoltaic voltage of lanthanum-doped lead zirconate titanate ceramic and the deflection of the actuator, and the influence of different loads on driving characteristics through a series of experiments. From these experiments, the results indicate that when lanthanum-doped lead zirconate titanate ceramic is irradiated by ultraviolet light, the photovoltaic voltage with load is lower than that without load. The trend of deformation curves is in agreement with the trend of the driving voltage curves under different loads conditions. And the deformation of torsion actuator increases with the increase in light intensity. Therefore, the photo response torsion actuator driven by the opto-electrostatic hybrid driving method can control the deformation with rapid response speed effectively; meanwhile, the hysteresis phenomenon can be ignored.

Theoretical and experimental analysis on deflection control of photovoltaic-electrostatic cantilever beam

A model of photovoltaic-electrostatic cantilever beam based on lanthanum-modified lead zirconate titanate ceramic is proposed in this article. New equivalent electrical model of lanthanum-modified lead zirconate titanate ceramic connected to a parallel plate composed of two copper foils is obtained by modifying the original lanthanum-modified lead zirconate titanate equivalent electrical model. After that, the mathematical model of photovoltaic-electrostatic cantilever beam is established. Furthermore, the influences of ultraviolet light intensity and copper foil length on the deflection of the photovoltaic-electrostatic cantilever beam are analyzed via the theoretical and experimental methods. The analysis results indicate that the deflection at the free end of cantilever beam increases with the increase in light intensity and length of the copper foil. The photovoltaic-electrostatic flexible cantilever beam can be taken as a micro-actuator with the advantages of remote control and clean drive.