Investigation of machining parameters for the fabrication of step-edged piezoelectric single crystals

Piezoelectric single crystals are one of the promising energy harvesting transduction materials that are widely used in various sensors and actuators applications. In particular, the step-edged structure of functional crystals can be utilized for the manipulation of ultrasonic beam fields such as ultrasonic tweezers and vortex applications. Although it has promising material advantages, the machinability of single crystal limits their applicability. In this research, we demonstrated and optimized the step-edge cutting process of piezoelectric single crystal. The effects of machining parameters were investigated to minimize edge chipping behavior. As the taper angle of step-edge decreased, a decreasing trend in edge chipping was observed. By controlling the chipping and crack propagation in brittle material, a three dimensional fabrication strategy for piezoelectric single crystals will be discussed.

Acknowledgement
This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (No. RS- 2023-00210764), and was supported by the Technology Innovation Challenge Program for Mid-sized Enterprises and Public Research Institute (RS-2025-02307280) funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE, Korea).