Surface acoustic wave (SAW) gas sensors are of continuous development interest to researchers due to their sensitivity, short detection time, and reliability. Among the most used materials to achieve the sensitive film of SAW sensors are metal oxide semiconductors, which are highlighted by thermal and chemical stability, by the presence on their surface of free electrons and also by the possibility of being used in different morphologies. For different types of gases, certain metal oxide semiconductors are used, and ZnO is an important representative for this category of materials in the field of sensors. Having a great potential for the development of SAW sensors, the discussion related to the development of the sensitivity of metal oxide semiconductors, especially ZnO, by the synthesis method or by obtaining new materials, is suitable and necessary to have an overview of the latest results in this domain.

The influence of sensitive porous films obtained by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on the response of surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensors on hydrogen at room temperature (RT) was studied. Monolayer films of TiO₂ and bilayer films of Pd/TiO₂ were deposited on the quartz substrates of SAW sensors. By varying the oxygen and argon pressure in the PLD deposition chamber, different morphologies of the sensitive films were obtained, which were analyzed based on scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images. SAW sensors were realized with different porosity degrees, and these were tested at different hydrogen concentrations. It has been confirmed that the high porosity of the film and the bilayer structure leads to a higher frequency shift and allow the possibility to make tests at lower concentrations. Thus, the best sensor, Pd-1500/TiO₂-600, with the deposition pressure of 600 mTorr for TiO₂ and 1500 mTorr for Pd, had a frequency shift of 1.8 kHz at 2% hydrogen concentration, a sensitivity of 0.10 Hz/ppm and a limit of detection (LOD) of 1210 ppm. SAW sensors based on such porous films allow the detection of hydrogen but also of other gases at RT, and by PLD method such sensitive porous and nanostructured films can be easily developed.

A Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) hydrogen sensor with a Pd/ZnO bilayer structure for room temperature sensing operation has been obtained by Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD). The sensor structure combines a Pd layer with optimized porosity for maximizing mass effects, with the large acoustoelectric effect at the Pd/ZnO interface. The large acoustoelectric effect is due to the fact that ZnO has a surface conductivity which is highly sensitive to chemisorbed gases. The sensitivity of the sensor was determined for hydrogen concentrations between 0.2% and 2%. The limit of detection (LOD) of the bilayer sensor was about 4.5 times better than the single ZnO films and almost twice better than single Pd films.

A delay-line-type surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensor based on a zinc oxide (ZnO) sensitive layer was developed. Two types of sensitive layers were obtained: ZnO nanowires and ZnO thin films, both deposited using laser methods (VLS-PLD and PLD, respectively) onto quartz substrates. The responses of sensors with two different nanowire lengths (300 and 600 nm) were compared with those of sensors with thin films of different thicknesses (ca. 100 and 200 nm) to different concentrations of hydrogen and deuterium. The experimental results revealed a high response at low concentrations and a rapid saturated response for nanowires, but a low response at low concentrations and a linear response to much higher gas concentrations for the thin-film-based SAW sensors.