SH-SAW Acousto-Electric Amplifier in Epitaxial InGaAs on Lithium Niobate on Insulator

Abstract

This work demonstrates shear-horizontal surface acoustic wave (SH-SAW) acoustoelectric (AE) amplification on an epitaxial InGaAs / X-cut lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI) heterostructure formed by Al2O3-mediated wafer bonding. Deployable passivated devices show a stable fundamental-mode non-reciprocity of 32 dB/mm at 1.11 GHz (30 V bias, 64 mW consumed), while unpassivated devices reach 174 dB/mm across 1.1-2.8 GHz, reported as upper bounds. Device characterization establishes the role of mode-dependent K^2 in determining the achievable gain. Hall-effect measurements of the transferred InGaAs serve as a quantitative diagnostic: the extracted carrier density, elevated by unintentional silicon doping during epitaxy, accounts for the absolute AE gain when inserted into the analytical model and identifies epitaxial process control as a clear lever for further enhancement. We further identify ambient oxidation of the bare InGaAs surface as a distinct aging mechanism that extinguishes the AE response within weeks, and show that an InP or ALD Al2O3 passivation layer suppresses it, at the cost of redistributing the piezoelectric field away from the channel. These results establish InGaAs-on-LNOI as a compact, low-power platform for non-reciprocal RF components and acoustoelectric delay lines, with strong relevance to in-band full-duplex (IBFD) transceivers and spectrum-efficient wireless front ends.