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Piezoelectric Effect: Crystal Microphones Ultrasonic Transducers

Crystals that generate an electric charge when compressed or distorted are piezoelectric. Quartz demonstrates strong piezoelectric properties and is used in watch crystals and precision frequency references. Certain ceramics like barium titanate and lead zirconate also exhibit piezoelectricity and are used in ultrasonic transducers and microphones. Piezoelectric materials play an important role in applications like medical imaging, sensors, actuators, and precision control and measurement devices.

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Jasjeet Singh Ahluwalia
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116 views

Piezoelectric Effect: Crystal Microphones Ultrasonic Transducers

Crystals that generate an electric charge when compressed or distorted are piezoelectric. Quartz demonstrates strong piezoelectric properties and is used in watch crystals and precision frequency references. Certain ceramics like barium titanate and lead zirconate also exhibit piezoelectricity and are used in ultrasonic transducers and microphones. Piezoelectric materials play an important role in applications like medical imaging, sensors, actuators, and precision control and measurement devices.

Uploaded by

Jasjeet Singh Ahluwalia
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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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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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 Electrical current flows in opposite


piezoelectric material causes directions depending on whether
electrical current to flow. pressure is increasing or decreasing.

A piezoelectric lighter containing a Magnified view of the spark produced


ratchet mechanism, which cocks and by a piezoelectric lighter.
strikes a piezoelectric crystal, Piezoelectric lighters are found in gas
produces a spark that travels several furnaces, ovens, driers, and barbeque
millimeters in air. grills.

Superimposed centers of positive and


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

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