An acoustoelectric transistor

A new kind of three-terminal amplifying device that works on the principle of nonlinear acoustic wave amplification is described. The device has an advantage of simple transistor-like operation while maintaining the long delay times of an acoustic wave amplifier. A piezoelectric semiconductor with three ohmic contacts forms the basic unit; transducers are not required. A theory of device operation, based on a linearized small-signal analysis of acoustic energy transport, is presented along with the resulting analytical expressions for the dc and RF gain and cutoff frequency. Experimental results are given for a test device made of epitaxial GaAs.