Active Electromechanical Nanostructures Without the Use of Piezoelectric Constituents (NSF NIRT Grant 0708096 ) Pradeep Sharma, University of Houston Boris Yakobson, Rice University Ramanan Krishnamoorti. University of Houston Zoubeida Ounaies, Texas A&M University Theoretical results: Effect of flexoelectricity on indentation Flexoelectricity Apparently Piezoelectric Superlattices without Piezoelectric Constituents We derived analytical solution of the indentation problem incorporating anisotropy, piezoelectricity and flexoelectricity. Layered Super-Lattices Indentation experiments In parallel, we conducted experiments with varying indentation size…..single crystal BaTiO3 Berkovich indent on BTO surface Load: 8mN; Depth into surface: 200nm Polarization in each layer of a SrTiO3-MgO-BaTiO3 Periodic Trilaminate (as shown in the inset). Overall average polarization in the Trilaminate is 11% of the Quartz. NaCl will exhibit an apparent piezoelectric effect when subjected to strain gradients Contact stiffness vs contact radius for BaTiO3 Indentation size effect? Indentation experiments indicate a large size effect (see the star-data points). For example, compared to the size-independent behavior (red line), around 10 nm, there is a doubling of contact stiffness. The curvature of CNT results in rehybridization of p-orbital. As a result, the center of electronic charge at each atomic site is displaced outwards from the nuclear charge. In principle, the flexoelectric size-effect should be observable in indentation experiments.