Researchers take the lead out of piezoelectrics

There is good news for the global effort to reduce the amount of lead in the environment and for the growing array of technologies that rely upon the piezoelectric effect. A lead-free alternative to the current crop of piezoelectric ...

Good vibrations: New atom-scale products on horizon

The generation of an electric field by the compression and expansion of solid materials is known as the piezoelectric effect, and it has a wide range of applications ranging from everyday items such as watches, motion sensors ...

Push-Button Logic on the Nanoscale

(PhysOrg.com) -- Circuits that can perform logic operations at the push of a button are a dime-a-dozen these days, but a breakthrough by researchers in the USA has meant they can be smaller and simpler than ever before. Using ...

New quasi-particle bridges microwave and optical domains

In a paper published today (Sept. 18) in Nature Communications, researchers from the Paul-Drude-Institut in Berlin, Germany, and the Instituto Balseiro in Bariloche, Argentina, demonstrated that the mixing of confined quantum ...

Negative piezoelectric effect is not so rare after all

(Phys.org)—The piezoelectric effect, which causes a material to expand along the direction of an applied electric field, is common in many materials and used in a variety of technologies, from medical ultrasound to vibration-powered ...

Shaking light with sound

Piezoelectric materials can convert electrical voltage to mechanical displacement and vice versa. They are ubiquitous in modern wireless communication networks such as in cellphones. Today, piezoelectric devices, including ...

How to power electronics using mechanical motion

The push toward low powered, energy-saving devices has been a direction the electronics industry has always pursued. The switch to low powered LED lighting is a good example of this trend. Another avenue is the development ...

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