GaPO4 high temperature crystal microbalance demonstration up to 720°C

Quartz-homeotypic gallium (ortho-) phosphate, GaPO4, is of special interest for resonator applications asking for temperature compensated cuts with higher electro-mechanical coupling than quartz and operational temperatures up to 970°C. The crystal microbalance technique, well known for quartz (QCM) which can be used only at moderate temperatures, can now be extended to much higher temperatures using GaPO4 crystals, benefiting from all three advantages mentioned above. Two different experiments were done to demonstrate the advantages of a crystal microbalance based on GaPO4. First, the GaPO4 resonator was used for film thickness determination and compared with a commercial QCM. This experiment demonstrated that the measuring range can be extended by using GaPO4 resonators instead of quartz. The second experiment demonstrates the possibility for thermogravimetric analysis up to 720°C by using a new concept for resonator mounting.