Nanocrystalline diamond enhanced thickness shear mode resonator

Abstract

A nanocrystalline diamond coated thickness shear mode resonator has been fabricated as an alternative to the quartz crystal microbalance. Due to the low temperature phase transition of quartz, the piezoelectric material was replaced with langasite, a piezoelectric with no phase transition up to its melting point. The resulting device shows clear resonant behavior and oscillates in both air and in liquid. The diamond coating shows clear faceting by scanning electron microscopy and sp(3) bonding by Raman spectroscopy. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.