US Patent 7591961 Translucent piezoelectric glass ceramic

A translucent piezoelectric glass ceramic is disclosed. The glass ceramic is prepared from a precursor glass by a ceraming process, using a temperature gradient to effect the precipitation of non-ferroelectric piezo-active crystallites from the precursor glass with a preferred direction of orientation and having an average crystal size of less than 1 micrometer. Alternatively, a translucent piezoelectric glass ceramic comprising ferroelectric crystallites may be prepared by poling. In this case the crystal size is controlled to be smaller than 90 nanometers but preferably larger than 10 nanometers.