Focusing Surface Acoustic Wave Microcavities on GaAs

Abstract: Focusing microcavities for surface acoustic waves (SAWs) produce highly localized strain and piezoelectric fields that can dynamically control excitations in nanostructures. Focusing transducers (FIDTs) that generate SAW beams which match nanostructure dimensions require pattern correction due to diffraction and wave velocity anisotropy. The anisotropy correction is normally implemented by adding a quadratic term to the dependence of the wave velocity on propagation angle. We show that SAW focusing to diffraction limited sizes in GaAs requires corrections that more closely follow the group velocity wavefront, which is not a quadratic function. Optical interferometric mapping of the resultant SAW displacement field reveals tightly focused SAW beams on GaAs with a minimal beam waist. An additional set of Gouy phase-corrected passive fingers creates an acoustic microcavity in the focal region with small volume and high quality factor. Our $\lambda_\mathrm{SAW} = 5.6~\mu$m FIDTs are expected to scale well to the $\approx $ 500~nm wavelengths regime needed to study strong coupling between vibrations and electrons in electrostatic GaAs quantum dots.