Surface transverse waves exceed the material Q limit for surface acoustic waves on quartz

State-of-the-art 1.244-GHz surface transverse wave (STW) resonators on AT-cut quartz are characterized. They demonstrate an unloaded Q of 8144 which is as high as 97% of the material Q limit for surface acoustic waves (SAWs). By analyzing the measured data and accounting for the ohmic loss, it is shown that the material Q for STWs on quartz, experimentally obtained from these devices, is at least 37% higher than the material Q for SAWs.