Leaky surface acoustic waves in single-crystal AlN substrate

We report on the velocity V and the electromechanical coupling coefficient K² of the first and the second leaky surface acoustic waves in various propagation directions in the a-plane AlN single-crystal. For c-propagation direction, the second leaky wave exhibited the velocity of 11016 m/s and K² of 0.45%. For this direction, the temperature coefficient of frequency was found to be -30 ppm/°C. A near match of the velocities of the plane and leaky waves in the a-plane AlN allowed us to establish analytical relationships between the piezoelectric and elastic constants. A full set of elastic and piezoelectric constants of AlN has been evaluated by fitting the measured and calculated dependencies of velocities and electromechanical coupling coefficients on the propagation direction for both Rayleigh and leaky waves.