Acoustic device

Abstract

An acoustic device has an acoustic wave propagating medium exhibiting elastic abnormality in the vicinity of a Curie temperature. It is desirable that such an acoustic wave propagating medium be formed of a ferroelectric substance or a high-elastic substance and, in particular, have a Curie temperature at normal temperatures. For example, such ferroelectric substance is a solid solution expressed by Cs(Pb.sub.1-x Sr.sub.x)(Cl.sub.1-y Br.sub.y).sub.3 or (Bi.sub.1-x Dy.sub.x)VO.sub.4. By changing values of x and y appropriately, the Curie temperature of the solid solution can be varied, and an acoustic wave propagating medium meeting the purpose of use can be obtained. In such an acoustic wave propagating medium, an elastic coefficient C.sup.P at the time of constant polarization differs greatly from an elastic coefficient C.sup.E at the time of a constant electric field in the vicinity of the Curie temperature. Accordingly, the propagation velocity of acoustic waves is greatly different, too. By varying the elastic coefficients of the acoustic wave propagating medium, various novel acoustic devices utilizing the above characteristics can be obtained.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.