Study of elementary surface acoustic wave phenomena

Many attempts have been made in acoustic microscopy to both achieve nanometer lateral resolution and sub-A wave amplitude detection. Employing a scanning acoustic force microscopy technique, acoustic wave properties of arbitrarily polarized modes can be measured with sub-wavelength resolution and high sensitivity. Surface acoustic wave fields of elementary model systems like a single scatterer and a single wave source are analysed in detail. We are able to observe radiation patterns, revealing the influence of the anisotropy of the GaAs substrate and the angular distribution of the piezoelectric coupling coefficient