Variation in resonant frequency of piezoelectric lead–zirconate–titanate element undergoing high-level radiation.

A piezoelectric lead–zirconate–titanate (PZT) element was exposed to a 400 MeV/n xenon beam and the radiation effect on the element was studied as a variation of resonant and antiresonant frequencies by the resonance method. A possible effect of heating the element on the resonant frequency was avoided by using data obtained while the temperature of the element was kept constant. Consequently, the variation of the resonant frequency was empirically represented by a simple function of the amount of accumulated energy in the element. We therefore discuss the piezoelectric PZT element as a potential detector for high-level radiation. We point out that a piezoelectric equation including the heat term is required to explain the experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]