Phoxonic Hybrid Superlattice

Probing gigahertz coherent acoustic phonons in TiO2 mesoporous thin films

Ultrahigh-frequency acoustic-phonon resonators usually require atomically flat interfaces to avoid phonon scattering and dephasing, leading to expensive fabrication processes, such as molecular beam epitaxy. Mesoporous thin films are based on inexpensive wet chemical fabrication techniques that lead to relatively flat interfaces regardless the presence of nanopores. Here, we report mesoporous titanium dioxide-based acoustic resonators with resonances up to 90 GHz, and quality factors from 3 to 7. Numerical simulations show a good agreement with the picosecond ultrasonics experiments. We also numerically study the effect of changes in the speed of sound on the performance of the resonator. This change could be induced by liquid infiltration into the mesopores. Our findings constitute the first step towards the engineering of building blocks based on mesoporous thin films for reconfigurable optoacoustic sensors.

Phononic and photonic properties of shape-engineered silicon nanoscale pillar arrays

We report the results of Brillouin-Mandelstam spectroscopy and Mueller matrix spectroscopic ellipsometry of the nanoscale 'pillar with the hat' periodic silicon structures, revealing intriguing phononic and photonic-phoxonic-properties. It has been theoretically shown that periodic structures with properly tuned dimensions can act simultaneously as phononic and photonic crystals, strongly affecting the light-matter interactions. Acoustic phonon states can be tuned by external boundaries, either as a result of phonon confinement effects in individual nanostructures, or as a result of artificially induced external periodicity, as in the phononic crystals. The shape of the nanoscale pillar array was engineered to ensure the interplay of both effects. The Brillouin-Mandelstam spectroscopy data indicated strong flattening of the acoustic phonon dispersion in the frequency range from 2 GHz to 20 GHz and the phonon wave vector extending to the higher-order Brillouin zones. The specifics of the phonon dispersion dependence on the pillar arrays' orientation suggest the presence of both periodic modulation and spatial localization effects for the acoustic phonons. The ellipsometry data reveal a distinct scatter pattern of four-fold symmetry due to nanoscale periodicity of the pillar arrays. Our results confirm the dual functionality of the nanostructured shape-engineered structure and indicate a possible new direction for fine-tuning the light-matter interaction in the next generation of photonic, optoelectronic, and phononic devices.

Effects of Microsphere Size on the Mechanical Properties of Photonic Crystals

Photonic crystal (PC) thin films that are self-assembled from different-sized silica microspheres were prepared for studying mechanical properties via nanoindentation at the submicron scale. We found that the silica photonic crystals (PCs) possessed a face-centered cubic (FCC) microstructure and their elastic modulus and hardness were in the range of ~1.81–4.92 GPa and 0.008–0.033 GPa, respectively. The calculated results proved that there were size-dependent properties in the silica PCs, in that the elastic modulus and hardness increased as the diameter decreased from 538 nm to 326 nm. After studying the total work and plastic work in the progressive deformation of silica PCs during the nanoindentation tests, we developed a two-stage deformation model to explain how the microsphere size affects the mechanical properties of PC thin films. The phenomenon of “smaller is stronger” is mainly due to the energy consumption, which combines the effects of microstructure collapse, microsphere slide, and reduced porosity during the whole loading and unloading process. In addition, the results of numerical simulation matched the experimental data and reflected the energy change rules of PCs during the indentation process. Furthermore, the study affords useful guidance for constructing high-performance films with proper design and potential application in next-generation PC materials.

Elastic Modulus and Thermal Conductivity of Thiolene/TiO2 Nanocomposites

Metal oxide based polymer nanocomposites find diverse applications as functional materials, and in particular thiol-ene/TiO2 nanocomposites are promising candidates for dental restorative materials. The important mechanical and thermal properties of the nanocomposites, however, are still not well understood. In this study, the elastic modulus and thermal conductivity of thiol-ene/TiO2 nanocomposite thin films with varying weight fractions of TiO2 nanoparticles are investigated by using Brillouin light scattering spectroscopy and 3ω measurements, respectively. As the TiO2 weight fraction increases from 0 to 90%, the effective elastic longitudinal modulus of the films increases from 6.2 to 37.5 GPa, and the effective thermal conductivity from 0.04 to 0.76 W/m K. The former increase could be attributed to the covalent cross-linking of the nanocomposite constituents. The latter one could be ascribed to the addition of high thermal conductivity TiO2 nanoparticles and the formation of possible conductive channels at high TiO2 weight fractions. The linear dependence of the thermal conductivity on the sound velocity, reported for amorphous polymers, is not observed in the present nanocomposite system.