Impulse characteristic as a response of a liquid sensor based on shear-horizontal surface acoustic waves

The feasibility of using the impulse response of a liquid sensor based on shear-horizontal surface acoustic waves to identify liquids is justified. Identification of some liquid analytes with a single-channel sensor is experimentally demonstrated. The sensor is built around a delay line based on shear-horizontal surface acoustic waves that are excited in a 36°YX LiTaO₃-Al film-SiO₂ film-molecularly imprinted polymer film layered structure. By way of example, the concentration of the morpholine impurity (molecules of which are used as a template in synthesis of this molecularly imprinted polymer) in the liquids is measured. Impulse characteristics are derived by applying the fast inverse Fourier transformation to the amplitude-frequency responses of the sensor taken in a 60-MHz wide band at a center frequency of 105 MHz. The reproducibility of results obtained using such a technique and its application are discussed.