Summary: | The propagation of acoustic plate-mode waves in composite membranes is studied. A computer program has been developed and used to calculate the wave velocity and electromechanical coupling factor in these structures which may consist of any combination of piezoelectric layers with arbitrary orientation and surface metallization. In particular, shear modes (SH) in zinc-oxide and selenium membranes, as well as stiffened-Lamb modes in ZnO membranes and ZnO/Si, ZnO/GaAs composite membranes are studied. === The surface-acoustic-wave propagation in selenium and in selenium layers on tellurium has been extensively studied using an improved computer program. The study shows that surface-wave coupling factors in the range of 0.5 to 1.5% are possible with these structures. The calculated sensitivity of the velocity and coupling factor to errors in material constants shows that an accurate value of the e(,11) constant for selenium is necessary for an accurate estimate of the coupling factor. === A technology for fabricating selenium-tellurium layered structures for SAW propagation has been successfully developed. Measurements on fabricated SAW delay lines were carried out and estimates of the coupling factor and the acoustic attenuation obtained. These measurements, taken together with previously published results, confirm that the published value of e(,11) = 0.32 C/m('2) is too small.
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