High sensitivity gravimetric sensor made of carbon fiber epoxy composite on Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 single crystal substrate

We have derived a general formula for sensitivity optimization of gravimetric sensors and use it to design a high sensitivity gravimetric sensor using unidirectional carbon fiber epoxy composite (CFEC) guiding layer on (1-x)Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-xPbTiO3 (PMN-xPT) single crystal substrate. The normalized maximum sensitivity (|Smf|λ)max exhibits an increasing tendency with the decrease of (h/λ)opt. For the CFEC/[011]c poled PMN-0.29PT sensor configuration with λ = 24 μm, the maximum sensitivity |Smf|max can reach as high as 1230 cm2/g, which is about 3 times that of a traditional SiO2/ST quartz configuration gravimetric sensor.