Quartz Crystal Characteristics

Quartz crystal units only vibrate when connected to an electrical circuit. Tuning fork oscillators for clocks work by the same principle as the tuning fork used to tune a guitar. A tuning fork is made to vibrate by tapping it on something. Tuning fork oscillators are made to vibrate by giving them an electric shock.

If a stable frequency is required, the quartz crystal unit and the electronic circuit are placed together in a constant temperature oven, which keeps the temperature at a set level. With this type of temperature control, quartz crystal oscillators play a key role in a wide range of basic infrastructure used in broadcasting station and base station equipment for wireless communications, as standards for measuring instruments.

Taking advantage of these properties, quartz is widely used as an optical material in applications such as birefringent plates, wavelength plates and rotation plates.

Birefringent plates (optical low-pass filters) are typically used to prevent “moiré” in digital still cameras and video cameras, while wavelength plates are used to modify the polarization and enhance the efficiency with which optical engines use light in optical pickups and projectors. Quartz also offers outstanding laser resistance and for this reason is used in a wide range of industrial equipment.