Observation of surface acoustic waves using synchrotron radiation X-ray topography

Progressive surface acoustic waves (SAW) are well imaged using synchronous X-ray topography. We show that using large synchrotron radiation X-ray beams it is possible to obtain much information about the waves existing in various devices including filters and delay lines. To better understand the mechanism of formation of these images, section topographs were made and compared to simulated images. It appears that the section images contain more intricate contrasts than expected that, in fact, give new information about the SAW and explain the mechanism of formation of the translation images.