Giant Enhancement of the Electromechanical Coupling in Soft Heterogeneous Dielectrics
Electroactive soft elastomers require huge electric field for a meaningful actuation. We demonstrate that this can be dramatically reduced and giant deformations can be produced by application of suitably chosen heterogeneous actuators. The mechanism by which the enhancement is achieved is described and illustrated with the aid of both idealized and periodic models.
cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗