Application of the photo-elastic method to measurement of dynamic stress distribution for NS-GT cut quartz crystal resonators

NS-GT cut quartz crystal resonators are widely used as a frequency standard element in consumer products and communication equipment. The vibration mode of the resonators was analyzed by the finite element method (FEM) because they have a complicated shape. As a result, an asymmetrical vibration mode at the main resonant frequency has been obtained by the FEM simulation. But, it is necessary to confirm the asymmetrical vibration mode experimentally because it is just a simulation. In this paper, stress distributions of the NS-GT cut quartz crystal resonators are measured experimentally by using a dynamic photo-elastic method when the resonators are vibrating in the resonant frequency; thereafter, vibration modes of the NS-GT cut resonators are estimated with the experimental data of the stress distributions. This experiment for the NS-GT cut quartz crystal resonators exposes the existence of a twisted asymmetrical vibration mode at the main resonant frequency, with the magnitude of the twisted vibration in proportion to thickness of the resonators.