Preface

Piezoelectricity — a phenomenon of the direct conversion of electrical and mechanical energy — has been discovered by Pierre and Jacques Curie about 135 years ago. Since that time, it is an excellent example of coupled field phenomena in physics. It attracted a lot of interest from the application point of view not only in its static (or quasistatic) form, but also in the properties of mechanically resonating bodies excited piezoelectrically, i.e. piezoelectric resonators. Such elements are nowadays used as resonant sensors, in electronic circuits, acoustical systems, actuators and ultrasonic motors or in energy harvesting devices. Piezoelectric resonators were treated in the literature as you can see from the comprehensive, although not exhaustive, list of books published within the last three decades. Although many literature sources cover various aspects of piezoelectric resonators and their applications, the fundamental literature is more than five decades old. Comprehensive textbook covering all fundamental properties of piezoelectric resonators for ceramic materials is not easily available. Specialized monography published on piezoelectric resonators — J. Zelenka: Piezoelectric resonators and their applications, Elsevier, Amsterdam 1986 — is also 30 years old already. Moreover, it is devoted specifically to quartz resonators, but not to piezoelectric resonators made from ferroelectric ceramics. The authors would like to bridge this gap in specialized literature by this textbook focused specifically on the fundamentals of piezoelectric resonators based on crystallographically highly symmetrical material, i.e., ferroelectric ceramics. Its piezoelectricity is a result of material anisotropy imposed by poling in ceramic material. We can profit from the basic piezoelectricity and ferroelectricity phenomena explanations and descriptions published in the previous book — J. Tichý, J. Erhart, E. Kittinger, J. Přívratská: Fundamentals of piezoelectric sensorics: Mechanical, dielectric, and thermodynamical properties of piezoelectric materials, Springer Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg 2010. Therefore we can recommend this book for the basic reading on piezoelectricity phenomena and materials and to cover and explain piezoelectric ceramic resonators only. The textbook and the abovementioned book are complementary in this sense. Piezoelectricity phenomena and