Viscoelastic behavior of antibody films on a shear horizontal acoustic surface wave sensor

To study the viscoelastic behavior of antibody films on a surface acoustic wave device, we have measured the influence of multiple layers of antibodies onto the propagation of the wave. Attenuation and sound velocity variation caused by up to 20 layers have been measured. The results can be interpreted with the propagation of a viscously damped Love wave in a film with an extremely low velocity of sound. From our results, we conclude that, for the one- or two-layer films normally used in acoustic wave immunosensing, a pure mass effect is dominant. For thick films, a saturation of the sensor response is observed.