Advances in Nanophononics

A special issue of Nanomaterials (ISSN 2079-4991). This special issue belongs to the section "Theory and Simulation of Nanostructures".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2020) | Viewed by 11274

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology | ICN2, Phononic and Photonic Nanostructures, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain
Interests: control of phonon propagation in nanostructures; phonon–photon interaction

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is aimed to present original research papers or comprehensive reviews covering recent progress and new developments in the area of nanophononics. The topics span a wide range of research subjects, either from the experimental or the theoretical points of view, including experimental methods.

Phonons are quantized mechanical vibrations and, as electrons and photons, could be employed as energy and information carriers. The reality is that the technological accomplishments of electronics and photonics have sometimes brought the field of phononics to emulate the former rather than exploiting the distinctive nature of phonons. The current state-of-the-art top-down fabrication sets a lowermost limit to feature size of about 10 nm, influencing the propagation of phonons in a frequency range where phononics can potentially become technologically relevant. Therefore, bringing phonons to the nanoscale has already generated an enormous increase of the activity in the field and, specifically, in the area known as nanophononics. Artificial structuring in the form of plates, layers, phononic crystals, and metamaterials leads to spatial dispersion as a result of symmetry constrictions and morphology of the structure. While the former rule the existing mode symmetries and the occurrence of interactions between phonon states, the latter controls the strength of the interaction. Therefore, the response of the medium depends on the ratio of length scales between the wave and the geometrical structures of the medium. This has stimulated the prospect of the rational design of phononic structures to obtain a desired wave’s behaviour or unconventional wave topologies. In the case that the artificial inhomogeneity is not static but spatial and time-dependent, it may cause time-reversal symmetry breaking, and non-reciprocal wave propagation may occur. 

Finally, elastic waves provide an adaptable approach for supporting a coherent coupling between different state variables, which promises a myriad of novel signal-processing functionalities in hybrid systems.

Dr. Francesc Alzina Sureda 
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • Elastic Metamaterials and Metasurfaces
  • Inverse and rational design
  • Active/Adaptive phononic structures
  • Unconventional elastic waves
  • Non-reciprocal elastic wave propagation
  • Generation and detection of coherent phonons
  • Interaction of phonons with other particles and quasiparticles

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 7874 KiB  
Article
Graphene-Based One-Dimensional Terahertz Phononic Crystal: Band Structures and Surface Modes
by Ilyasse Quotane, El Houssaine El Boudouti and Bahram Djafari-Rouhani
Nanomaterials 2020, 10(11), 2205; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano10112205 - 5 Nov 2020
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2199
Abstract
In this paper, we provide a theoretical and numerical study of the acoustic properties of infinite and semi-infinite superlattices made out of graphene-semiconductor bilayers. In addition to the band structure, we emphasize the existence and behavior of localized and resonant acoustic modes associated [...] Read more.
In this paper, we provide a theoretical and numerical study of the acoustic properties of infinite and semi-infinite superlattices made out of graphene-semiconductor bilayers. In addition to the band structure, we emphasize the existence and behavior of localized and resonant acoustic modes associated with the free surface of such structures. These modes are polarized in the sagittal plane, defined by the incident wavevector and the normal to the layers. The surface modes are obtained from the peaks of the density of states, either inside the bulk bands or inside the minigaps of the superlattice. In these structures, the two directions of vibrations (longitudinal and transverse) are coupled giving rise to two bulk bands associated with the two polarizations of the waves. The creation of the free surface of the superlattice induces true surface localized modes inside the terahertz acoustic forbidden gaps, but also pseudo-surface modes which appear as well-defined resonances inside the allowed bands of the superlattice. Despite the low thickness of the graphene layer, and though graphene is a gapless material, when it is inserted periodically in a semiconductor, it allows the opening of wide gaps for all values of the wave vector k// (parallel to the interfaces). Numerical illustrations of the band structures and surface modes are given for graphene-Si superlattices, and the surface layer can be either Si or graphene. These surface acoustic modes can be used to realize liquid or bio-sensors graphene-based phononic crystal operating in the THz frequency domain. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Nanophononics)
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32 pages, 1157 KiB  
Article
The Scattering of Phonons by Infinitely Long Quantum Dislocations Segments and the Generation of Thermal Transport Anisotropy in a Solid Threaded by Many Parallel Dislocations
by Fernando Lund and Bruno Scheihing-Hitschfeld
Nanomaterials 2020, 10(9), 1711; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano10091711 - 29 Aug 2020
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2474
Abstract
A canonical quantization procedure is applied to the interaction of elastic waves—phonons—with infinitely long dislocations that can oscillate about an equilibrium, straight line, configuration. The interaction is implemented through the well-known Peach–Koehler force. For small dislocation excursions away from the equilibrium position, the [...] Read more.
A canonical quantization procedure is applied to the interaction of elastic waves—phonons—with infinitely long dislocations that can oscillate about an equilibrium, straight line, configuration. The interaction is implemented through the well-known Peach–Koehler force. For small dislocation excursions away from the equilibrium position, the quantum theory can be solved to all orders in the coupling constant. We study in detail the quantum excitations of the dislocation line and its interactions with phonons. The consequences for the drag on a dislocation caused by the phonon wind are pointed out. We compute the cross-section for phonons incident on the dislocation lines for an arbitrary angle of incidence. The consequences for thermal transport are explored, and we compare our results, involving a dynamic dislocation, with those of Klemens and Carruthers, involving a static dislocation. In our case, the relaxation time is inversely proportional to frequency, rather than directly proportional to frequency. As a consequence, the thermal transport anisotropy generated on a material by the presence of a highly-oriented array of dislocations is considerably more sensitive to the frequency of each propagating mode, and, therefore, to the temperature of the material. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Nanophononics)
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10 pages, 3089 KiB  
Article
Filtering Characteristics of Phonon Polaritons Waves Based on Dielectric-h-BN-Dielectric Structure in Mid-Infrared Band
by Ming Cai, Shulong Wang, Zhihong Liu, Yindi Wang, Tao Han and Hongxia Liu
Nanomaterials 2020, 10(5), 878; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano10050878 - 1 May 2020
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2718
Abstract
Hyperbolic materials can be used to excite hyperbolic phonon polaritons in specific frequency bands, which causes abrupt interfaces with fluctuations of permittivity and different transmission characteristics at different incident wavelengths. Using the quasi-static approximation, the filtering characteristics of hexagonal Boron nitride (h-BN) and [...] Read more.
Hyperbolic materials can be used to excite hyperbolic phonon polaritons in specific frequency bands, which causes abrupt interfaces with fluctuations of permittivity and different transmission characteristics at different incident wavelengths. Using the quasi-static approximation, the filtering characteristics of hexagonal Boron nitride (h-BN) and the transmission characteristics of phonon polaritons waves on a dielectric-h-BN-dielectric structure were studied in the paper. The results show that a smaller relative permittivity of the materials above and below h-BN and a thicker h-BN (ε1 = 1 (air), ε2 = 3.9 (SiO2), d = 100 nm) will lead to better filtering characteristics for different wavenumbers’ incident waves (propagation length from 0.0028 μm to 1.9756 μm). Simulation results in COMSOL validated the previous theoretical calculations. Moreover, the transmissivity and 3dB bandwidth of the type-II band were calculated with different structure widths. The maximum transmissivity of ~99% appears at a width of 100 nm, and the minimum 3dB bandwidth reaches 86.35 cm−1 at a structure width of 1300 nm. When the structure width meets or exceeds 1700 nm, the 3dB bandwidth is equal to 0, and its structure length is the limit for the filter application. These characteristics reveal the excellent filtering characteristics of the dielectric-h-BN-dielectric structure, and reveal the great potential of using the dielectric-h-BN-dielectric structure to design optical filter devices with excellent performance in mid-infrared bands. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Nanophononics)
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5 pages, 1307 KiB  
Article
Coherent Thermal Conduction in Silicon Nanowires with Periodic Wings
by Roman Anufriev and Masahiro Nomura
Nanomaterials 2019, 9(2), 142; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano9020142 - 22 Jan 2019
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3470
Abstract
Artificial periodic nanostructures, known as phononic crystals, promise to control the thermal properties of nanostructures in the coherent regime, which can be achieved in semiconductors at low temperatures. Here, we study coherent thermal conduction in silicon nanowires with added periodic wings at sub-Kelvin [...] Read more.
Artificial periodic nanostructures, known as phononic crystals, promise to control the thermal properties of nanostructures in the coherent regime, which can be achieved in semiconductors at low temperatures. Here, we study coherent thermal conduction in silicon nanowires with added periodic wings at sub-Kelvin temperature. Our simulations show that the added periodic wings flatten the phonon dispersion and thus reduce the thermal conductance. We investigate the dependence of this reduction on the size of the wings and conclude that the reduction is mainly caused by the periodicity of the wings, rather than by local resonances in them. These findings help to better understand the mechanisms controlling coherent heat conduction in periodic resonant nanostructures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Nanophononics)
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