Influence of electromechanical resonances of the lead-in filament on interferometric measurements of quadratic electrostriction

In interferometric measurements of quadratic electrostriction, anomalies in the frequency-dependence of the recorded strain signal are sometimes observed that are probably not caused by intrinsic material behaviour. The question discussed in this article is whether electromechanical resonances of the gold filament connecting the sample to the high-voltage supply can be the origin of this effect. The expected resonance frequencies are predicted using a simple macroscopic description that combines the telegraph equation for the clectric field strength in the filament with a constitutive equation for the electric field and mechanical dilatations