We Can Figure This Out.org
Virtual Lab: SPM Piezoelectric Crystals
University of Virginia
             
 
© 2003-Present, John C. Bean
 
Now let's pull back to see the upper part of the piezoelectric assembly.

We would be ready to go if it were not for one major problem: the tube is not made of one single piezoelectric crystal. Instead it is made up of many small crystallites, oriented in many different directions (as represented by the regions with differently oriented Z's).

If we apply an electric field, the crystallites will each change shape, but as they stretch and shrink in different directions, there may be no net change in the shape or size of the tube.

 
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