A design for photoacoustic mass sensors operating above 100 GHz is proposed. The design is based on impulsive optical excitation of a pseudosurface acoustic wave in a surface phononic crystal with nanometric periodic grating, and on time-resolved extreme ultraviolet detection of the pseudosurface acoustic wave frequency shift upon mass loading the device. The present design opens the path to sensors operating in a frequency range currently unaccessible to electro-acoustical transducers, providing enhanced sensitivity, miniaturization and incorporating time-resolving capability while forgoing the piezoelectric substrate requirement.
@article{arxiv.1303.2947,
title = {Design of a surface acoustic wave mass sensor in the 100 GHz range},
author = {Damiano Nardi and Elisa Zagato and Gabriele Ferrini and Claudio Giannetti and Francesco Banfi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1303.2947},
year = {2013}
}