Study of elementary surface acoustic wave phenomena

Many attempts have been made in acoustic microscopy to both achieve nanomet er lateral resolution and sub-A wave amplitude detection. Employing a scann ing acoustic force microscopy technique, acoustic wave properties of arbitr arily polarized modes can be measured with sub-wavelength resolution and hi gh sensitivity. Surface acoustic wave fields of elementary model systems li ke a single scatterer and a single wave source are analysed in detail. We a re able to observe radiation patterns, revealing the influence of the aniso tropy of the GaAs substrate and the angular distribution of the piezoelectr ic coupling coefficient.