Wide-Band Nonreciprocity of Surface Acoustic Waves Induced by Magnetoelastic Coupling with a Synthetic Antiferromagnet

One of the major challenges in surface acoustic wave (SAW) technology, which is widely used in modern signal processing, is the absence of wave nonreciprocity (one-way propagation). To tackle this problem, the authors propose an approach based on magnetoelastic coupling of SAWs to spin waves possessing a suitable spectrum. This approach allows the creation of nonreciprocal SAW devices with almost no limitations on the working-frequency band (in contrast to the severe band limitations of traditional approaches), to realize the full potential of magnetoelastically induced SAW nonreciprocity. These results could become a breakthrough step toward nonreciprocal SAW signal processing.