Effects of nonlinear elastic surface pulses in anisotropic silicon crystals

The propagation of nonlinear surface acoustic wave (SAW) pulses was investi gated in anisotropic single-crystal silicon. The effects of frequency-up an d frequency-down conversion were found to depend on the plane and direction of SAW propagation, yielding a variety of waveforms. The formation of stee p shock fronts that broke the covalent crystal was observed in the (112) di rection of the Si(111) plane. Solitary behavior of surface waves was studie d by investigating the interaction between nonlinearity and dispersion for silicon covered with a thin oxide layer.