Time-resolved structure analysis of vibrating gallium phosphate under alternating electric field

Abstract

Piezoelectric crystals, which exhibit electric polarization under mechanical stress and a mechanical strain under an electric field, are widely used in various electro-mechanical devices such as oscillators, sensors, and actuators. The mechanism of piezoelectricity can be simply explained by displacements of cations and anions against each other under a mechanical stress or an electric field. The actual relationship between a lattice strain and atomic displacements induced by the application of an electric field should be revealed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) structural analysis under an electric field. However, atomic displacements induced by inverse piezoelectric effects are usually very small to detect by conventional XRD measurements.