Temperature dependent angular dispersions of surface acoustic waves on GaAs

Abstract

We measure the phase velocities of surface acoustic waves (SAWs) propagating at different crystal orientations on (001)-cut GaAs substrates and their temperature dependance. We design and fabricate sets of interdigital transducers (IDTs) to induce 4 {\mu}m SAWs via the inverse piezoelectric (PZE) effect between the PZE [110] direction (set as {\theta} = 0{\deg}) and the non-PZE [100] direction ({\theta} = 45{\deg}) on GaAs. We also prepare ZnO film sputtered GaAs substrates in order to launch SAWs efficiently by IDTs even in the non-PZE direction. We quantify acoustic velocities between 1.4 and 300 K from the resonant frequencies in the S11 parameter using a network analyzer. We observe parabolic velocity-temperature trends at all {\theta}-values both on GaAs and ZnO/GaAs substrates. Below 200 K, in ZnO/GaAs substrates slower SAW modes appear around the [110] direction, which are unseen at RT.