The first recorded instance of sound (phonons) appears in the 3rd verse of Genesis. The propagation of acoustic (elastic) waves in architected matter is a generic problem that impacts material and life sciences. Phonon propagation in composite structures depends on many conversational parameters (4 per solid component) increasing further when anisotropy, confinement and interfacial effects are included in the structure design. There is therefore rich unexplored and hardly predictable fundamental science that needs foundation of high frequency phononics enabling simultaneous manipulation of hypersonic phonons and visible light. The required submicron scale organization is a ubiquitous property of soft matter that allows such fabrication of structures with manifold functionalities.Control over the phonon dispersion can impact the flow of elastic waves, strength and toughness concomitantly, and heat transport in dielectric hybrid materials. Many important questions in this young field of small-nano scale phononics are just being raised and require new conceptual and technical approaches to address them.
1) The advancement of a new field creates knowledge in physics and engineering and challenges material nanofabrication. This know-how is being transferred to young scientists.
2) Strong, tough and low density nanostructured materials are of paramount importance for a wide range of applications comprising microelectronic, photonics, nano-electro-mechanical systems, nanofluidics, and biomedical technologies.
3) A detailed understanding of phonon propagation in soft nanostructuresis a precondition to access fundamental concepts such as heat management and phonon-photon interactions. Heat management is increasingly being recognized as a key technology to fuel the growth of our technology-driven society. Controlling the elusive flow of heat is a complex challenge across multiple materials, length scales, and ultimately devices.
The project addresses challenging objectives at the frontiers of the involved research: a) Develop new capabilities for phonon (elastic waves) management in architected soft matter with implementation on directional strength, heat management and optomechanics. b) Extend concepts and techniques from polymer and colloid science into the new area of phononics. c) Determine currently unknown dimension- and direction-dependent thermo-mechanical properties. d) Realize functional (photo-thermal) photonic devices based on soft matter systems.
