IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/spr/sprchp/978-1-4612-4106-5_10.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

Piezoelectrics

In: Fundamental Solutions for Differential Operators and Applications

Author

Listed:
  • Prem K. Kythe

    (University of New Orleans, Department of Mathematics)

Abstract

Piezoelectricity is defined as an electric polarization that is produced by mechanical strain (due to pressure) in crystals of certain class, like quartz. A closely related but totally different phenomenon is that of pyroelectricity which is a state of electric polarity produced on certain crystals by change of temperature (through heating or cooling). The prefixes ‘piezo-’ and ‘pyro-’ are derived from Greek words which mean ‘to press’ and ‘fire’ respectively. It was in 1880 when Pierre and Jacques Curie discovered that some crystals when compressed in particular directions show positive or negative charges on certain portions of their surfaces, such that the changes are proportional to the pressure and disappear when the pressure is released. The theory of piezoelectricity is based on Lord Kelvin’s thermodynamic principles. It has led to great advances in the study of crystal physics. Voigt’s monumental work (1910) is devoted to fully and rigorously formulate the piezoelectric theory. Even in spite of remarkable development of the optical theory and the general theory of elastic waves in crystals, the subject of piezoelectricity remained merely a scientific curiosity until the time of WWI when the idea of exciting quartz plates electrically developed, to serve as emitters, and later as receivers, of high-frequency (h-f) sound waves under water. This usage led to locating immersed objects and exploring ocean bottoms.

Suggested Citation

  • Prem K. Kythe, 1996. "Piezoelectrics," Springer Books, in: Fundamental Solutions for Differential Operators and Applications, chapter 9, pages 207-230, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-1-4612-4106-5_10
    DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4612-4106-5_10
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a
    for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-1-4612-4106-5_10. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.