A dynamic compressometer for converse electrostriction measurements

A simple dynamic instrument for measuring very small stress dependence of capacitance is presented in this article. We describe the design and development of a dynamic compressometer for converse electrostrictive measurements on low dielectric constant materials. This redesigned system is capable of resolving a change in capacitance of 10(-17) F or smaller. The most important feature is the dynamic stressing system incorporated to improve the accuracy and the reproducibility of the measurements. Furthermore, the uniaxiality and uniformity of the applied stress are found to be critical to the measurements. Therefore, a uniaxial stress delivery scheme using ball bearings is employed in the measurements to improve the accuracy of the experimental results. The converse electrostrictive coefficients obtained from this instrument agree reasonably well with those measured directly by a single-beam interferometer. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.