A powerful surface acoustic wave can transport charge along a quasi-one-dimensional channel defined in a piezoelectric semiconductor in packets confined to the minima of the wave's electrostatic potential. The interaction between electrons can suppress fluctuation in the number of electrons in a packet, resulting in a current that is proportional to the surface acoustic wave (SAW) frequency. This effect has been observed experimentally and is presently being considered as a possible route towards a standard of electric current. Here we present further study of this acoustic charge transport. The main finding is that a weak counterpropagating SAW beam can be used to improve the precision of the current delivered by the device.
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Cunningham et al. (1999) studied this question.