Lithium niobate phononic crystal for surface acoustic waves

International audience; The recent theoretical and experimental demonstrations of stop bands for surface acoustic waves have greatly enlarged the potential application field for phononic crystals. The possibility of a direct excitation of these surface waves on a piezoelectric material, and their already extensive use in ultrasonics make them an interesting basis for phononic crystal based, acoustic signal processing devices. In this paper, we report on the demonstration of the existence of an absolute band gap for surface waves in a piezoelectric phononic crystal. The Surface Acoustic Wave propagation in a square lattice, two-dimensional lithium niobate phononic crystal is both theoretically and experimentally studied. A plane wave expansion method is used to predict the band gap position and width. The crystal was then fabricated by reactive ion etching of a bulk lithium niobate substrate. Standard interdigital transducers were used to characterize the phononic structure by direct electrical generation and detection of surface waves. A full band gap around 200 MHz was experimentally demonstrated, and close agreement is found with theoretical predictions.