Copyright (c) 2013 University of Nebraska - Lincoln All rights reserved. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/chemengsingh Recent documents in Gaurav Singh Publications en-us Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:09:43 PST 3600 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/chemengsingh/1 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/chemengsingh/1 Tue, 27 Mar 2007 14:04:50 PDT In this letter, we demonstrate that, at mesoscales, nonferroelectric liquid films of poly~dimethyl siloxane! exhibit significant electrostriction not present in the corresponding bulk state. Remarkably, the observed electrostrictive effect has a response time ,20 ms in contrast to .5 ms recorded in conventional bulk ~ferroelectric! polymers. The emergence of this fast electrostrictive strain in thin films is explained in terms of the amalgamation of two contrasting dynamic features—the influence of a highly mobile, viscous layer ~at the air/film interface! on the less-mobile, but fast responding, solid-like layer at the film/substrate interface. The effect is observed for thickness below 200 nm.

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