Quartz Crystal Piezoelectric physics

[ArtemisGoldfish]

I've looked around google and searched the forum (I hope I searched it thoroughly enough and won't be flamed to shame), but I can't find an answer to this: How does a crystal react to electricity? There are many circuits for oscillation with crystals, but why exactly does a crystal lend itself to frequency and oscillation? Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[Leftyretro]

I've looked around google and searched the forum (I hope I searched it thoroughly enough and won't be flamed to shame), but I can't find an answer to this: How does a crystal react to electricity? There are many circuits for oscillation with crystals, but why exactly does a crystal lend itself to frequency and oscillation? Any help would be greatly appreciated

It's called the piezoelectric effect. If a crystal is stimulated with an electrical charge it will mechanically resonate at a specific frequency, also conversely if the crystal is mechanically stressed it will create an electrical charge.

Here is a start to further research you might take:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piezoelectricity#Materials

Lefty

 

[ArtemisGoldfish]

It's called the piezoelectric effect. If a crystal is stimulated with an electrical charge it will mechanically resonate at a specific frequency, also conversely if the crystal is mechanically stressed it will create an electrical charge.

Here is a start to further research you might take:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piezoelectricity#Materials

Lefty

Okay, but what about this can you use to create oscillation?

 

[Papabravo]

Okay, but what about this can you use to create oscillation?

The conditions for oscillation are gain, feedback, and phase shift. You can certainly create oscillators without a crystal. What the crystal does is to enhance certain frequencies and attenuate others. It is precisely the frequencies at the mechanical resonance of the crystal which are enhanced.