Giant photostriction rate for remote opto-ultrasonic structural health monitoring

Giant photostriction rate for remote opto-ultrasonic structural health monitoring

Nature Communications

10.1038/s41467-026-69906-y

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-69906-y

Jie Yin, Yuxuan Yang, Xiaoming Shi, Chunlin Zhao, Cong Lin, Hong Tao, Yang Zhang, David Boon Kiang Lim, Chao Jiang, Liming Lei, Yunfeng Song, Haijun Wu, Xiangdong Ding, Jun Sun, Fei Li, Jiagang Wu, Kui Yao

24 February 2026

Yin, J., Yang, Y., Shi, X., Zhao, C., Lin, C., Tao, H., Zhang, Y., Lim, D. B. K., Jiang, C., Lei, L., Song, Y., Wu, H., Ding, X., Sun, J., Li, F., Wu, J., & Yao, K. (2026). Giant photostriction rate for remote opto-ultrasonic structural health monitoring. Nature Communications, 17(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-69906-y

Extending photocarrier lifetime, accelerating photostrictive strain buildup, and engaging more light–lattice interactions are essential to increase the bulk photostriction rate—a key figure of merit integrating strain magnitude and generation speed (typically < 10−³ s−¹ in bulk ferroelectrics)—for efficient remote ultrasound generation. Here, we report non-poled terbium-doped (K,Na)NbO₃ ceramics, where Tb³⁺ 4f-electron trapping prolongs photocarrier lifetime, enabling efficient carrier drift to domain walls for screening depolarization field. Hierarchical nanostructures—dense nanodomains (accelerating photostriction via coupled local bulk photovoltaic and converse piezoelectric effects) and subwavelength grains (more light–lattice interactions and enhancing collective photostriction)—yield an outstanding bulk photostriction rate of 6.41×10−¹ s−¹, two orders above conventional bulk ferroelectrics. Non-poled ceramics avoid the depoling issue, enabling robust and low-power opto-ultrasonic transducers for reliable remote structural health monitoring. Our bulk ferroelectric design strategy enables cost-effective, high- performance opto-ultrasonic sensing technologies.

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

This research / project is supported by the A*STAR - RIE2025, Industry Alignment Fund – Industry Collaboration Projects Grant
Grant Reference no. : I2301E0027, IAF311014R

This research / project is supported by the A*STAR - RIE2020 Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering (AME) Industry Alignment Fund–Pre-positioning Program
Grant Reference no. : A20F5a0043

https://oar.a-star.edu.sg/communities-collections/articles/23026

2041-1723

Institute of Materials Research and Engineering

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-69906-y