Platinum (Pt) gratings on langasite (LGS) substrates are a widely used structures in high temperature surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices. Multiple modes can be excited in Pt/LGS SAW devices owing to the heavy weight of the Pt electrode and leaky waves in the LGS substrate. In this work, we report on a detailed mode analysis of Pt/LGS SAW devices, where three commonly used LGS cuts are considered. A three-dimensional (3D) finite element method (FEM) numerical model was developed, and the simulation and experiment results were compared. The experiment and simulation results showed that there are two modes excited in the Pt/LGS SAW devices with Euler angle (0°, 138.5°, 27°) and (0°, 138.5°, 117°), which are Rayleigh-type SAW and SH-type leaky wave, respectively. Only the Rayleigh-type mode was observed in the Pt/LGS SAW devices with Euler angle (0°, 138.5°, 72°). It was found that the acoustic velocities are dependent on the wavelength, which is attributed to the change of wave penetration depth in interdigital transducers (IDTs) and the velocity dispersion can be modulated by the thickness of the Pt electrode. We also demonstrated that addition of an Al2O3 passivation layer has no effect on the wave modes, but can increase the resonant frequencies. This paper provides a better understanding of the acoustic modes of Pt/LGS SAW devices, as well as useful guidance for device design. It is believed that the Rayleigh-type SAW and SH-type leaky waves are potentially useful for dual-mode sensing applications in harsh environments, to achieve multi-parameter monitoring or temperature-compensation on a single chip.
Keywords: langasite; mode analysis; platinum; surface acoustic wave; velocity dispersion.