  Here, we report the observation of strong coupling between magnons and
surface acoustic wave (SAW) phonons in a thin CoFeB film constructed in an
on-chip SAW resonator by analyzing SAW phonon dispersion anticrossings. Our
device design provides the tunability of the film thickness with a fixed phonon
wavelength, which is a departure from the conventional approach in strong
magnon--phonon coupling research. We detect a monotonic increase in the
coupling strength by expanding the film thickness, which agrees with our
theoretical model. Our work offers a significant way to advance fundamental
research and the development of devices based on magnon--phonon hybrid
quasiparticles.
