41: Piezoelectric Materials: In Your Body, Underwater, and In Space (ft. Dr. Susan Trolier-McKinstry)

The Curie brothers discovered a class of materials that, with an asymmetrical crystal structure, could produce an electric potential upon mechanical deformation. These piezoelectric materials are now widely used in the medical, naval, and space industries.

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Today’s guest is Dr. Susan Trolier-McKinstry. She is a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Penn State, where she is the Director of The Center for Dielectrics and Piezoelectrics as well as the Center for Three Dimensional Ferroelectric Microelectronics. In this episode, she dives into the working principles and applications of piezoelectric materials.

In this conversation, we discuss the following topics:

• What are piezoelectric materials
• The asymmetric crystal structure of piezoelectronics
• The intersection between ultrasound and sonar technology
• Correcting the lenses of telescopes
• Miniaturized ultrasound 
• Piezoelectric materials used in computing devices

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Thank you Joao Morgado for editing this episode!

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