Charge localization instability in a highly deformable dielectric elastomer

This paper shows that a highly deformable capacitor made of a soft dielectric and two conformal electrodes can switch between two states discontinuously, by a first-order transition, as the total charge varies gradually. When the total charge is small, it spreads evenly over the area of the capacito...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 2014-01, Vol.104 (2), p.22905
Main Authors: Lu, Tongqing, Keplinger, Christoph, Arnold, Nikita, Bauer, Siegfried, Suo, Zhigang
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied physics
Capacitors
Deformation
Elastomers
Electrical faults
Electrodes
Formability
Localization
Stability
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Summary:This paper shows that a highly deformable capacitor made of a soft dielectric and two conformal electrodes can switch between two states discontinuously, by a first-order transition, as the total charge varies gradually. When the total charge is small, it spreads evenly over the area of the capacitor, and the capacitor deforms homogeneously. When the total charge is large, it localizes in a small region of the capacitor, and this region thins down preferentially. The capacitor will survive the localization without electrical breakdown if the area of the electrode is small. Such a bistable system may lead to useful devices.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.4862325