ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces a tensor/matrix description of piezoelectrics and reviews a phenomenological description of the piezoelectric/electrostrictive and describes magnetostrictive effects. It presents a description of ferroelectricity in terms of crystal structure and describes domain reorientation and loss mechanisms. The dependence of the piezoelectric properties on crystallographic orientation has been modeled phenomenologically for lead zirconate titanate compositions in the vicinity of the morphotropic phase boundary. The results summarized have been determined by simply transforming the dielectric constant, piezoelectric coefficients, and elastic compliances from one orientation to another via the transformation matrices, using original data collected for the compositions of interest. The chapter considers microscopic or crystallographic origins of loss mechanisms in piezoelectrics from the materials science viewpoint and the mechanisms for electric field—induced strains. The dependence of the piezoelectric properties on crystallographic orientation has been modeled phenomenologically for lead zirconate titanate compositions in the vicinity of the morphotropic phase boundary.
