A bonded wafer with low carrier lifetime in silicon comprises a silicon substrate having opposing top and bottom surfaces, the structure of the silicon in a top portion of the silicon substrate having been modified to reduce the carrier lifetime in the top portion relative to the carrier lifetime in portions of the silicon substrate other than the top portion; a piezoelectric layer bonded over the top surface of the silicon substrate and having opposing top and bottom surfaces separated by a distance T; and a pair of electrodes having fingers that are inter-digitally dispersed on the top surface of the piezoelectric layer in a pattern having a center-to-center distance D between adjacent fingers of the same electrode, the electrodes comprising a portion of a Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) device. Modification of the top portion of the silicon substrate prevents the creation of a parasitic conductance within the top portion of the silicon substrate during operation of the SAW device.