An elastic piezoelectric nanomembrane with double noise reduction for high-quality bandpass acoustics
Jialin Zhang, Yanjun Liu, Peiyi Wu
Abstract
Polymer piezoelectrics with high electromechanical energy conversion (HEEC) are very promising for flexible acoustoelectric devices. However, reducing thickness and improving ordered polarization and ferroelectricity while maintaining high mechanical strength pose enormous fabrication challenges for polymer piezoelectric membranes—additionally, noise management in the acoustoelectric conversion remains an open issue. Here, we present a hydro-levitation superspreading approach for fabricating polymer nanomembranes with ordered crystalline phases and sub-nanostructures on the water surface. The elastic piezoelectric nanomembrane (EPN) is only 335 nanometers thick and consists of a conductance-stable piezoelectric layer sandwiched between two elastic damping layers. Such an all-in-one EPN can reduce background noise with low autocorrelation in the environment, suppress spurious noise caused by poor circuit contact, and achieve bandpass filtering of acoustic signals at human voice frequencies. This nanomembrane holds promise in repairing the auditory system of patients with tympanic membrane perforation and in a wide range of other acoustoelectric conversion fields. Creating flexible acoustoelectric devices with ultrathin thickness, high elasticity, stable conductivity, and high electromechanical energy conversion capability poses a challenge. Zhang et al. present a liquid crystal mediated technique that creates an elastic piezoelectric nanomembrane with double noise reduction, offering promise for auditory system reconstruction and other acoustoelectric conversion applications.