Probing acoustic nonlinearity by mixing surface acoustic waves

Measurement methods aimed at determining material properties through nonlinear wave propagation are sensitive to artifacts caused by background nonlinearities inherent in the ultrasonic generation and detection methods. The focus of this paper is to describe our investigation of nonlinear mixing of surface acoustic waves (SAWs) as a means to decrease sensitivity to background nonlinearity and increase spatial sensitivity to acoustic nonlinearity induced by material microstructure.