Yasuhiro MIZUTANI^*, Yukitoshi OTANI, and Norihiro UMEDA

Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, 2-24-16 Nakacho, Koganei, Tokyo 184-8588, Japan

(Received November 1, 2007; Accepted January 28, 2008; Revised January 18, 2008)

Optically driven actuators have a feature of a non-contact method supplied by light energy. A new method is proposed with three poly(vinylidene difluoride) (PVDF) cantilevers as the legs and a polymer film as the body. The PVDF cantilevers are coated with silver on one surface. When one side of the cantilever is irradiated by a laser beam, an electric field is produced along a cross-section of the cantilever by the pyroelectric effect and a mechanical displacement occurs by the piezoelectric effect. Its response time and its generated force are measured experimentally. Two types of optically driven actuators using PVDF film are proposed to move using different characteristics.

Key words: optically driven actuator, poly(vinylidene difluoride), pyroelectric effect, cantilever

^*E-mail address: mizutan@cc.tuat.ac.jp