Characteristic parameters of surface acoustic waves in a periodic metal grating on a piezoelectric substrate

The coupling problem between electrodes due to the propagation of acoustic waves in a periodic metal grating on a piezoelectric substrate is theoretically studied. A method for the determination of the mutual admittance between the grating electrodes is presented, and an analytical expression for the contribution of surface acoustic waves (SAWs) is proposed. The SAW characteristic parameters are determined with a numerical technique that is able to deal with a leaky SAW as well as a true SAW (conventional Rayleigh type or Bleustein-Gulyaev type). Using this technique, the SAWs' contribution to the mutual admittance can be removed, and the analysis of other contributions becomes possible. In particular, the amplitude decay rate of the residual mutual admittance with electrode separation gives information about the propagation of the surface skimming bulk waves (SSBWs). The method presented is applied to several currently used material-cut configurations.