Electrostrictor refers to materials that can create a force or a movement or change its shape by an external stimulus such as an electric field. Most of the electrostrictors currently in use are Pb-based piezoelectric materials whose use is limited because of their very serious harm to nature. This research focuses on the fabrication of next-generation optical equipment using electrostrictors that are environmentally friendly, harmless to humans, and capable of mimicking the human eye. Very large electrostrictive property have recently been reported in oxygen-deficient oxides such as Gd-doped Cerium oxide (CGO), where the improvement of electrostrictive performance is due to the lack of oxygen in the crystal, causing local distortion and the elastic strain of the crystal against the external electric field. Despite these outstanding achievements, flexible devices have rarely been developed as equipment applicable to modern life of interest because they are basically grown by high temperature heat treatment on solid substrates. In order to be applied to flexible optical device such as lenses, it is essential to study the structure of the CGO capable of growing at low temperatures and to measure the electrostrictive property. In this work, we intend to develop optical equipment such as lenses using transparent polymer layers and oxides with oxygen defects. In this lens system, the electrostrictor material will be deformed by an external electric field, and by controlling these deformations, the focal distance or a refractive index can be changed by adjusting the thickness and shape of the polymer.
This project has received fundings from Villum Fonden and will be running from 01-05-2019 to 30-04-2021.