Quartz question

dr strangelov

Hi all,

I have been looking at quartz and trying to work out the physics at a atomic level, how it reacts with photons/laser is of particular interest.

I will leave this open as any knowledge you have is welcome, there is the obvious it converts electrical to mechanical and vice versa but how does it do that?

Looking online i can find people useing quartz they fire lasers at it all day but no straight forward explaination of what quartz does in any detail.

If you have any problems tracking down the physics of how quartz works let me know as well.

Maybe i am looking in the wrong places.

Many thanks