  We study the excitation of spin waves in scaled magnetic waveguides using the
magnetoelastic effect. In uniformly magnetized systems, normal strains parallel
or perpendicular to the magnetization direction do not lead to spin wave
excitation since the magnetoelastic torque is zero. Using micromagnetic
simulations, we show that the nonuniformity of the magnetization in submicron
waveguides due to the effect of the demagnetizing field leads to the excitation
of spin waves for oscillating normal strains both parallel and perpendicular to
the magnetization. The excitation by biaxial normal in-plane strain was found
to be much more efficient than by uniaxial normal out-of-plane strain. For
narrow waveguides with widths of 200\,nm, the excitation efficiency of biaxial
normal in-plane strain was comparable to that of shear strain.
