Perspectives on spintronics with surface acoustic waves

Surface acoustic waves (SAWs) are elastic waves propagating on the surface of solids with the amplitude decaying into the solid. The well-established fabrication of compact SAW devices, together with well-defined resonance frequencies, places SAWs as an attractive route to manipulate the magnetization states in spintronics, all of which is made possible by the magnetostriction and magnetoelastic effects. Here, we review the basic characteristics of SAW devices and their interaction out-of-resonance and in-resonance with the magnetization in thin films. We describe our own recent results in this research field and closely related works and provide our perspectives moving forward.