Hydrogen detection with surface acoustic transverse waves

A new hydrogen sensor is here presented, based on the use of horizontally polarized surface transverse waves (STW). The use of these waves for application to chemical sensors seems attractive because of the possibility of controlling their penetration depth into the substrate and thus increasing the sensitivity of the device. Preliminary experiments, performed on a ST-cut quartz substrate, have shown how the response of the device strongly increases with the STW energy trapping in the sensitive Pd film. © 1989 Società Italiana di Fisica.