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Propagation properties of magneto-surface-acoustic-waves (MSAWs) in highly magnetostrictive alloy films formed on glass substrates are analyzed using the “matrix approach”. The analysis reveals that MSAWs appearing in this configuration are two modes of the Rayleigh-type and the Love-type SAWs. The velocity and attenuation of these two modes of waves versus drive frequency vary in a different manner depending strongly on the easy axis orientation of the uniaxial magnetic anisotropy in the film plane, which reflects the fact that the coupling between the spin and the elastic system is different.

BGS-type magneto-surface-acoustic-wave(MSAW) devices were constructed by depositing highly magnetostrictive amorphous Fe-Co-B ternary alloy films by RF-sputtering on horizontally polarized PZT-substrates, since this type of MSAW is expected from our theory to have wide controllability of the propagation properties with externally applied magnetic field in comparison with those of the Rayleigh-type MSAW. We measured changes of attenuation and phase velocity as a function of magnetic field, and the results agree qualitatively with those obtained by the theoretical analysis.