Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-materials-science-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2018/paper-1/2/b/ii/solution
Past exam of the materials science course of the University of Cambridge 2018 Paper 1 2 b ii Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-20
No. A piezoelectric single crystal need not be ferroelectric. A noncentrosymmetric crystal can couple strain to polarization without having a spontaneous polarization that an electric field can switch. Quartz is a standard example.
A single crystal already has an oriented crystallographic tensor, so the random-grain cancellation issue does not arise. The relevant tests are crystal symmetry and the nonzero piezoelectric coefficients; ferroelectric switching is a separate property.
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