Development of an optically modulated piezoelectric sensor/actuator based on titanium oxide phthalocyanine thin film

A photosensitive electrode made of titanium oxide phthalocyanine (TiOPc) was modulated optically and integrated with a piezoelectric sensor/actuator which allowed us to obtain in situ tailoring of real-time spatial performance. The TiOPc thin film was formed using a spin-coating process. The experimental results showed that the impedance of the TiOPc thin film irradiated by visible light was 0.053 times that of the film not irradiated by visible light. With the successful tailoring of the impedance of the photosensitive electrode, we designed an optically modulated lead zirconate titanate (PZT) sensor/actuator and tested it for different applications. The influence of the impedance match between the TiOPc thin film and PZT of our various optically modulated PZT sensor/actuator designs is discussed in detail. The optically modulated PZT sensor was designed for one-dimensional mode 1 sensor applications. In addition, the successful implementation of the DC effect allowed us to control the mode shape using our optically modulated PZT actuator which was tailored in real time in situ with different optical images. Potential applications of this newly developed TiOPc thin film sensor/actuator include deformable mirrors, microfluidic control applications, and vibration sensing/actuating.