Piezoelectric Effect

Crystals which acquire a charge when compressed, twisted or distorted are said to be piezoelectric. This provides a convenient transducer effect between electrical and mechanical oscillations. Quartz demonstrates this property and is extremely stable. Quartz crystals are used for watch crystals and for precise frequency reference crystals for radio transmitters. Rochelle salt produces a comparatively large voltage upon compression and was used in early crystal microphones. Barium titanate, lead zirconate, and lead titanate are ceramic materials which exhibit piezoelectricity and are used in ultrasonic transducers as well as microphones. If an electrical oscillation is applied to such ceramic wafers, they will respond with mechanical vibrations which provide the ultrasonic sound source. The standard piezoelectric material for medical imaging processes has been lead zirconate titanate (PZT). Piezoelectric ceramic materials have found use in producing motions on the order of nanometers in the control of scanning tunneling microscopes. The word piezo is Greek for "push". The effect known as piezoelectricity was discovered by brothers Pierre and Jacques Curie when they were 21 and 24 years old in 1880. There is a magnetic analog where ferromagnetic material respond mechanically to magnetic fields. This effect, called magnetostriction, is responsible for the familiar hum of transformers and other AC devices containing iron cores.
Piezoelectricity is a form of electricity created when certain crystals are bent or otherwise deformed. These same crystals can also be made to bend slightly when a small current is run through them, encouraging their use in instruments for which great degrees of mechanical control are necessary. This is called converse piezoelectricity. For example, scanning tunneling microscopes (STMs) use piezoelectric crystals to scan the surface of a material and create images of great detail. Piezoelectricity is related to pyroelectricity, in which a current is created by heating or cooling the crystal.

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Easy Interface, Artifact-Free Scan. See Microscope Images, Get a Quote! www.ParkAFM.com The property of piezoelectricity is dictated by both the atoms in the crystal and the particular way in which that crystal was formed. Some of the first substances that were used to demonstrate piezoelectricity are topaz, quartz, tourmaline, and cane sugar. Today, we know of many crystals which are piezoelectric, some of which can even be found in human bone. Certain ceramics and polymers have exhibited the effect as well. A piezoelectric crystal consists of multiple interlocking domains which have positive and negative charges. These domains are symmetrical within the crystal, causing the crystal as a whole to be electrically neutral. When stress is put on the crystal, the symmetry is slightly broken, generating voltage. Even a tiny bit of piezoelectric crystal can generate voltages in the thousands.

Piezoelectricity is used in sensors, actuators, motors, clocks, lighters, and transducers. A quartz clock uses piezoelectricity, as does any cigarette lighter without a flint. Medical ultrasound devices create high-frequency acoustic vibrations using piezoelectric crystals. Piezoelectricity is used in some engines to create the spark which ignites the gas. Loudspeakers use piezoelectricity to convert incoming electricity to sound. Piezoelectric crystals are used in many high-performance devices to apply tiny mechanical displacements on the scale of nanometers.

Increasing or decreasing pressure on a piezoelectric material causes electrical current to flow.

Electrical current flows in opposite directions depending on whether pressure is increasing or decreasing.

A piezoelectric lighter containing a ratchet mechanism, which cocks and strikes a piezoelectric crystal, produces a spark that travels several millimeters in air.

Magnified view of the spark produced by a piezoelectric lighter. Piezoelectric lighters are found in gas furnaces, ovens, driers, and barbeque grills.

Superimposed centers of positive and Motion caused by application of negative charge are represented by the two small dots in the middle of voltage to a hypothetical arrangment this array of ionic charges. When the of ions. The center of the positive charge and the center of negative crystal is compressed, the centers of charge are shown by the smaller positive and negative charge are circles. displaced from one another, creating an electric potential

Application of a voltage to a piezoelectric device causes a small motion as can be seen in the movement of a reflected laser beam.