Manipulating hypersound in mesoporous materials
The rapidly advancing field of nanophononics focuses on the study of hypersound, which are acoustic waves in the gigahertz to terahertz range, at the nanoscale. These high-frequency acoustic vibrations, also known as acoustic phonons, have the potential to revolutionize various industries, including materials science, medical imaging, data processing, and quantum technologies.
For instance, the strong interaction between acoustic phonons, light, and electrons in matter at the nanoscale presents a significant opportunity for advancements in optoelectronics. However, manipulating hypersound has been challenging, in part due to the expensive methods required to fabricate high-quality devices with atomic flat interfaces that can confine these waves.
A team of researchers at the Center de Nanosciences et de Nanotechnologies—C2N (CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay) led by Dr. Daniel Lanzillotti-Kimura and Dr. Galo Soler-Illia (Instituto de NanoSistemas, Universidad Nacional de San Martin, Argentine), has addressed this challenge in an experimental work published in the journal Photoacoustics by using mesoporous thin films to manipulate hypersound. Mesoporous materials based on silica and titania have a regular pattern of pores with sizes approximately ten thousand times smaller than the diameter of a human hair, and rely on more affordable fabrication methods.
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