Piezoelectric Effect

Project Report
By- Vaibhav Jain, Ojas Gupta, Varun Singh, Saurabh Kedar.

Abstract
The production of electric charges on certain crystals by the application of pressure
was discovered by the brothers Curie in 1880. Between the two Wars
piezoelectricity became of great importance to radio in the control of frequency.
During the Second World War millions of piezoelectric crystals were made for
use in communications both by radio and by telephone. Corresponding to this
intense industrial activity there has been a great development of the theoretical
aspects of the subject.

Introduction
Piezoelectricity is the electric charge that accumulates in certain solid materials (such
as crystals, certain ceramics, and biological matter such as bone, DNA and various
proteins) in response to applied mechanical stress. Piezoelectricity was discovered in
1880 by French physicists Jacques and Pierre Curie. The piezoelectric effect is
understood as the linear electromechanical interaction between the mechanical and the
electrical state in crystalline materials with no inversion symmetry. The piezoelectric
effect is a reversible process in that materials exhibiting the direct piezoelectric effect
(the internal generation of electrical charge resulting from an applied mechanical
force) also exhibit the reverse piezoelectric effect (the internal generation of a
mechanical strain resulting from an applied electrical field). For example, lead
zirconate titanate crystals will generate measurable piezoelectricity when their static
structure is deformed by about 0.1% of the original dimension. Conversely, those
same crystals will change about 0.1% of their static dimension when an external
electric field is applied to the material. The inverse piezoelectric effect is used in
production of ultrasonic sound waves. Piezoelectricity is found in useful applications
such as the production and detection of sound, generation of high voltages, electronic
frequency generation, microbalances, and ultrafine focusing of optical assemblies. It
is also the basis of a number of scientific instrumental techniques with atomic
resolution, the scanning probe microscopies. Most piezoelectric ele ctricity sources
produce power on the order of milliwatts, too small for system app lication, but
enough for hand- held devices such as some commercially available self-winding
wristwatches.

Mechanism for Piezoelectricity

Many materials, both natural and synthetic, exhibit piezoelectricity. 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. The generation of an electric charge in certain nonconducting materials,
such as quartz crystals and ceramics, when they are subjected to mechanical stress
(such as pressure or vibration), or the generation of vibrations in such materials when
they are subjected to an electric field. Piezoelectric materials exposed to a fairly
constant electric field tend to vibrate at a precise frequency with very little variation.
The nature of the piezoelectric effect is closely related to the occurrence of electric
dipole moments in solids. Of decisive importance for the piezoelectric effect is the
change of polarization P when applying a mechanical stress. This might either be
caused by a re-configuration of the dipole- inducing surrounding or by re-orientation
of molecular dipole moments under the influence of the external stress.
Piezoelectricity may then manifest in a variation of the polarization strength, its
direction or both, with the details depending on (i) the orientation of P within the
crystal, (ii) crystal symmetry and (iii) the applied mechanical stress. The change in P
appears as a variation of surface charge density upon the crystal faces, i.e. as a
variation of the electrical field extending between the faces caused by a change in
dipole density in the bulk. For example, a 1 cm3 cube of quartz with 2 kN (500 lbf) of
correctly applied force can produce a voltage of 12500 V. 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. Piezoelectric materials also show the opposite
effect, called converse piezoelectric effect, where the application of an electrical field
creates mechanical deformation in the crystal. Piezoelectric materials exhibit both a
direct and a reverse piezoelectric effect. Fig. 1 indicates conversion of vibration/
mechanical energy into electrical energy and vice versa. The direct effect produces an
electrical charge when a mechanical vibration or shock is applied to the material,
while the reverse effect creates a mechanical vibration or shock when electricity is
applied. Any spatially separated charge will result in an electric field, and therefore an
electric potential. In a piezoelectric device, mechanical stress, instead of an externally
applied voltage, causes the charge separation in the individual atoms of the material.
Fig. 2 indicates generation of piezoelectricity For polar crystals, for which P 0 holds
without applying a mechanical load, the piezoelectric effect manifests itself by
changing the magnitude or the direction of P or both. For the non-polar, but
piezoelectric crystals, on the other hand, a polarization P different from zero is only
elicited by applying a mechanical load. For them the stress can be imagined to
transform the material from a non-polar crystal class (P =0) to a polar one, having P
0. Fig. 3 shows mechanism of piezoelectric effect in quartz.

Fig. 1: Conversion of vibration/ mechanical energy into

electrical energy and vice versa.

Fig. 2: Generation of piezoelectricity.

Fig. 3: Mechanism of piezoelectric effect in quartz.

Mathematical Descriptions
Piezoelectricity is the combined effect of the electrical behavior of the material:
, where D is the electric charge density displacement (electric
displacement), is permittivity and E is electric field strength, and Hooke's Law:
, where S is strain, s is compliance and T is stress. These may be combined
into
so-called
coupled
equations,
of
which the
straincharge form is:
, where

is the
matrix

is the matrix for the converse piezoelectric

effect. The superscript E indicates a zero, or constant, electric field; the superscript T
indicates a zero, or constant, stress field; and the superscript t stands for transposition
of a matrix. The strain-charge for a material of the 4mm (C 4v ) crystal class (such as a
poled piezoelectric ceramic such as tetragonal PZT or BaTiO 3 ) as well as the 6mm
crystal class may also be written as::

where the first equation represents the relationship for the converse piezoelectric
effect and the latter for the direct piezoelectric effect. Although the above equations
are the most used form in literature, some comments about the notation are necessary.
Generally D and E are vectors, that is, Cartesian tensor of rank-1; and permittivity is
Cartesian tensor of rank 2. Strain and stress are, in principle, also rank2 tensors. But
conventionally, because strain and stress are all symmetric tensors, the subscript of
strain and stress can be re- labeled in the following fashion: 11 1; 22 2; 33 3;
23 4; 13 5; 12 6. (Different convention may be used by different authors in
literature. Say, some use 12 4; 23 5; 31 6 instead.) That is why S and T
appear to have the "vector form" of 6 components. Consequently, s appears to be a 6
by 6 matrix instead of rank-4 tensor. Such a re-labeled notation is often called
Voigt notation. In total, there are 4 piezoelectric coefficients,
, , , and
defined as follows:

where the first set of 4 terms correspond to the direct piezoelectric effect and the
second set of 4 terms correspond to the converse piezoelectric effect. Formalism has

been worked out for those piezoelectric crystals, for which the polarization is of the
crystal- field induced type that allows for the calculation of piezoelectrical coefficients
from electrostatic lattice constants or higher-order Madelung constants.

Application & Scope

Industrial and manufacturing units are the largest application market, for piezoelectric
devices, followed by the automotive industry. There is also high demand from
medical instruments as well as information in telecommunication. The global demand
for piezoelectric devices was valued at the approximately US$14.8 billion in 2010.
The largest material group for piezoelectric device is piezocrystal and piezopolymer
due to its low weight and small size. Piezoelectric crystals are now used in buzzer,
solar system also. This technique can solve the problem of electricity to road lighting
system, and without the need of kilometers of electrical wire which runs along the
side of the road. It is more efficient operation techniques with cost effective device.
Piezoelectric materials are capable of carrying high load and operating very high
frequencies. It requires no maintenance as there are no moving parts. It acts as a
capacitor and therefore requires very little power. However, protection of sensitive
piezoelectric devices is required against harsh weather condition, and strong electric
fields (200-500V/mm) can break down dipoles and depolarize a piezoelectric
material.

Conclusion
Piezoelectric materials have the ability to transform mechanical strain energy into
electrical charge. The amount of energy generated depends on the number of passing
vehicles and the number of piezoelectric elements on the road. Vehicles that are
moving slowly appears to generate slightly more energy than faster moving
vehicles, but further research is needed to confirm this piezoelectric power generation
system works successfully. It has tremendous scope for future energy/ power solution
towards sustainability.

References
1. Wikipedia
2. Google
3. Effect of Piezoelectricity on moving vehicles.