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Word of the day: Flexoelectricity:

Word of the day: Flexoelectricity:

Science

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New for me anyway, semiconductors generating electricity when bent. Not Piezoelectricity where the electricity is generated by compression, Different effect:

http://phys.org/news/2016-09-semiconductors-electricity.html

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Apparently it is a piezoelectric effect modified by a strain gradient (wiki). I don't know what a strain gradient is.

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Originally posted by apathist
Apparently it is a piezoelectric effect modified by a strain gradient (wiki). I don't know what a strain gradient is.
Gradient is just how the stress varies across a depth, so when bent, the inside curve may have more stress than the outside, which can be seen by laser interferometry.

Here are a bunch of images where you can see the distortions and stresses with this technique:

https://www.google.com/[WORD TOO LONG]

These devices can tell how well a telescope mirror is ground, and whether there is strain on the device.