Piezo-electric materials. X-ray diffraction from crystals under electric fields. A first test on alpha quartz

Synchrotron X-ray Microbeam Characterization of Smectic a Liquid Crystals under Electric Field

When an electric field is applied to chiral smectic A (SmA) liquid crystals, a tilt is induced in the director of orthogonal SmA liquid crystals (electroclinic effect). The layer shrinkage due to the tilted smectic arrangement is mitigated by local layer deformation. This paper presents detailed measurements of the local layer spacing under the electroclinic effect of the chiral SmA phase in a ...

Energy Harvesting from Vibrating Piezo-Electric Structures

The process of capturing the energy from a system’s environment or surrounding and converting it into usable electrical energy is termed as energy harvesting. One form of energy harvesting is to employ piezoelectric materials to harvest energy from vibrating structures. These materials have the ability to absorb the mechanical energy and transform it into electrical energy that can be used to p...

Electric double layer of anisotropic dielectric colloids under electric fields

Anisotropic colloidal particles constitute an important class of building blocks for self-assembly directed by electrical fields. The aggregation of these building blocks is driven by induced dipole moments, which arise from an interplay between dielectric effects and the electric double layer. For particles that are anisotropic in shape, charge distribution, and dielectric properties, calculat...

X-ray diffraction on solids under pressure

2014 In the first part, various techniques and examples for X-ray diffraction on polycrystalline samples under high pressure will be reviewed with special emphasis on a comparison between angular and energy dispersive techniques. The second part reviews X-ray diffraction techniques for single crystals under pressure and demonstrates on few examples typical applications. Revue Phys. Appl.19 (198...

A Three - Channel Piezo - Electric Pressure Recorder