Electromechanical coupling behavior of nano-scale dielectric elastomer actuators

介电弹性体作动器因其重量轻、能量密度高、变形大等优点，成为最有前途的软材料机电转换技术之一，受到人们的广泛关注。它们具有广泛的潜在应用，如人工肌肉、自适应光学元件、软机器人、可编程触觉表面以及其他仿生应用。尽管这些器件已经获得了独特的机电耦合性能，但在理解这些软介电体的基本原理方面工作有限，特别是当介电弹性体的尺寸达到亚微米或纳米级时。为了促进这些介电弹性体作为致动器的全部潜在应用，需要为可靠的设计提供坚实的理论指导。

Dielectric elastomers actuators, emerged as one of the most promising technologies for soft material-based electromechanical transduction, have received much attention due to their light weight, high energy density and large deformation. They have extensive potential applications, such as artificial muscles, adaptive optical elements, soft robots, programmable haptic surfaces, and other biomimetic applications. Despite the fact that unique electromechanical coupling performance has been obtained for these devices, there is limited work on understanding the underlying fundamentals of these soft dielectrics, especially when the size of dielectric elastomers goes to submicro or nano level. To facilitate the full potential applications of these dielectric elastomers as actuators, it is desirable to develop a solid theoretical guidance for the reliable designs.