Electroacoustic waves in piezoelectric crystals: Certain limiting cases

The Christoffel equations for electroacoustic waves in unbounded piezoelectric crystals are solved in the limits of weak and strong electromechanical coupling and for the case where the unstiffened elastic constants satisfy the conditions of elastic isotropy. Lyubimov's proof that piezoelectric stiffening of the elastic constants increases acoustic velocities is extended to cover degenerate modes. It is shown that when the elastic contribution to the stiffened elastic constants is zero, only one acoustic branch survives with a finite velocity. When the unstiffened elastic constants satisfy the conditions of elastic isotropy one of the acoustic branches is unaffected by the piezoelectric stiffening and, moreover, Lyubimov's theorem holds nonperturbatively.