On the influence of a flexural biasing state on the velocity of piezoelectric surface waves

A system of linear electroelastic equations for small fields superposed on a bias is applied in the determination of the velocity of acoustic surface waves in piezoelectric substrates subject to flexural biasing stresses. The influence of the biasing stresses appears in the boundary conditions as well as the differential equations. Direct calculations performed for both quartz and lithium niobate when the spatial variation of the flexural biasing state is omitted indicate that the biasing stresses in the boundary conditions have an important influence of the surface wave velocity. In addition, perturbation calculations are performed which include the influence of the spatial variation of all flexural biasing terms and it is shown that, for substrate thickness-to-wavelength ratios well within the practical range, the spatial variation in the biasing state has an appreciable effect on the velocity of acoustic surface waves.