Propagation of surface love waves in a piezoelectric semiconductor layer

In the present paper, the problem of Love waves propagating in a thin structure of a piezoelectric semi-conductor layer over an isotropic elastic half-space has been investigated. The semiconducting property of the piezoelectric materials is usually omitted in most studies, though this property significantly affects the characteristics of wave motion, the present study focuses on their influence on phase velocity and attenuation of the propagating wave. There are seven boundary conditions to solve this problem. These conditions are the continuity of stress tensor, electric potential, current and displacement at the boundaries of the layer. The dispersion equation of the surface Love waves is derived, and found that the wave is attenuated. The phase velocity and attenuation coefficients are obtained numerically from the dispersion relation for a particular model. The effect of thickness of the thin film and carrier density are shown graphically.