Characteristics of Love Wave Device with Ni Pillars on Zno/R-Sapphire Structure

Phononic crystals (PnCs) have attracted considerable attention in recent years because of the ability to control and manipulate acoustic and elastic wave propagation. A Love wave device composed of Nickel pillars on (110)ZnO/R-sapphire substrate is constructed by using COMSOL Multiphysics. The characteristics of the device, including the phase velocity (v
p
) and the electromechanical coupling coefficient (k
²
), are theoretically analyzed by finite element method (FEM). The results show that the 1st mode of love waves appear at h
ZnO
/λ=0.0625, while the point of occurrence is 0.31 at PnCs-free SAW structure. And the maximum electromechanical coupling coefficient(k
²
) of 3.27% is obtained by optimizing the structure of Nickel pillars, which is much higher than that of PnCs-free structure. All of the results indicate that the performances of the love wave device based on Nickel pillars/(110)ZnO/R-sapphire structure are superior to that of PnCs-free structure. And it provides a theoretical basis for designing Love wave devices with high frequency.