ELECTROSTRICTIVE ACTUATORS AND THEIR USE IN OPTICAL APPLICATIONS

There is a growing development activity around electromechanically active components and their applications. Piezoelectric ceramics, the first of these, are being supplanted by electrostrictive materials where high strain, high stress, and low hysteresis are required. This paper summarizes the key parameters and highlights some of the areas of application in optics. The intention is to provide the optical engineer with first-order device and application information. For the first time, mechanical control on the order of wavelengths is possible. Some nonoptical uses are addressed in order to suggest possible analogies to the optics field.