Piezoelectric Crystals: Constant Pressure & Electric Field

[ScienceNerd36]

If a constant pressure is kept on a piezoelectric crystal, will it continue to generate an electric field?

 

[Andy Resnick]

Based on this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piezoelectric

It appears so.

 

[JimmyAlz]

Actually, if you try this you will notice that the voltage drops back to zero quite quickly (seconds).
This is because the crystal is not a perfect insulator, and because you must extract some current to measure the voltage.

 

[K^2]

Yeah, when you deform a piezoelectric crystal, a voltage builds up. But that means that there is going to be a force acting on any free charges hanging around, which will try to rearrange themselves to cancel the voltage. So after a while the crystal should be neutral again.

 

[ScienceNerd36]

Thanks for the help :)

 

[Antiphon]

You may be interested in Ferroelectric materials too. These have constant electric fields wihout the need to apply a stress.

 

[ScienceNerd36]

You don't say. I'll be off to read up on them right now. Thanks :)