Silicon acoustoelectronics with thin film lithium niobate

Abstract

We report on the acoustoelectric (AE) interaction in heterogeneously integrated thinfilm lithium niobate on standard resistivity and high resistivity silicon substrates (LNOSs). The monolithic LNOS platform delivers acoustic waves with a large electromechanical coupling coefficient (K 2 ) and draws on standard metaloxide semiconductor field effect techniques to maximise AE interaction by impedance matching the acoustic wave with the semiconductor carriers. Preliminary results are obtained on AE attenuation (4 dB cm −1 ) and AE gain (6 dB cm −1 ). With further improvement of the LN/Si interface, the LNOS platform can be expected to give rise to an era of nonreciprocal silicon acoustoelectronics.

Strain Balanced Self‐Supporting Single‐Crystalline LiNbO3 Thin Films for Flexible Electronics

“…[22] In recent years, lithium niobate, an artificial crystal with exceptional electro-optical, pyroelectric, ferroelectric, and piezoelectric properties, has regained widespread attention. A new generation of optical and acoustic devices have been realized on ion sliced single-crystalline LiNbO 3 (LN) thin films on heterogeneous substrates (e.g., LiNbO 3 -on-Si [23] and LiNbO 3on-SiC [24] ), such as the integrated electro-optic modulators, [25][26] acousto-optic modulators, [27][28] pyroelectric detectors, [29] and radio frequency (RF) acoustic wave devices. [30][31][32] As a multifunctional material, LN also has great potential for applications in flexible electronics in theory, such as temperature or stress sensors, [33] Terahertz Spectrometer, [34] and RF communication devices.…”

RF acoustic microsystems based on suspended lithium niobate thin films: advances and outlook

“…Second, the limited k 2 does not provide sufficient amplification. Recent results using suspended [93] or solidly mounted LiNbO 3 thin films [135][136][137][138] could potentially lead to application-worthy amplifier applications.…”

“…Thin-film LiNbO 3 has been demonstrated as a Acoustoelectric amplifier using thin-film LiNbO 3 , using (a) suspended thin-film LiNbO 3 on Si (© 2020 IEEE. Reprinted, with permission, from [93]) and (b) solidly mounted thin-film LiNbO 3 on Si substrate (reproduced from [135]. © IOP Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved).…”

Non-reciprocal acoustoelectric microwave amplifiers with net gain and low noise in continuous operation

“…This is due to a range of issues, including weak interactions between the piezoelectric acoustic wave and semiconductor carriers [4][5][6] , poor thermal conductivity causing deleterious heating effects, [7][8][9][10][11] and the difficulty of integrating high-quality semiconductor materials with strongly piezoelectric materials such as lithium niobate (LiNbO 3 ) (refs. [12][13][14].…”