Vector network analyzer measurement of the amplitude of an electrically excited surface acoustic wave and validation by X-ray diffraction

Surface acoustic waves are used in magnetism to initiate magnetization switching, in microfluidics to control fluids and particles in lab-on-a-chip devices, and in quantum systems like two-dimensional electron gases, quantum dots, photonic cavities, and single carrier transport systems. For all these applications, an easy tool is highly needed to measure precisely the acoustic wave amplitude in order to understand the underlying physics and/or to optimize the device used to generate the acoustic waves. We present here a method to determine experimentally the amplitude of surface acoustic waves propagating on Gallium Arsenide generated by an interdigitated transducer. It relies on Vector Network Analyzer measurements of S parameters and modeling using the Coupling-Of-Modes theory. The displacements obtained are in excellent agreement with those measured by a very different method based on X-ray diffraction measurements.