Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Review Article
  • Published:

Sound and heat revolutions in phononics

Nature volume 503, pages 209–217 (2013)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

The phonon is the physical particle representing mechanical vibration and is responsible for the transmission of everyday sound and heat. Understanding and controlling the phononic properties of materials provides opportunities to thermally insulate buildings, reduce environmental noise, transform waste heat into electricity and develop earthquake protection. Here I review recent progress and the development of new ideas and devices that make use of phononic properties to control both sound and heat. Advances in sonic and thermal diodes, optomechanical crystals, acoustic and thermal cloaking, hypersonic phononic crystals, thermoelectrics, and thermocrystals herald the next technological revolution in phononics.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1
Figure 2: Phononic crystals.
Figure 3: Acoustic diodes.
Figure 4: Acoustic cloaking.
Figure 5: Enhancing sound–light interaction.
Figure 6: Thermal diodes.
Figure 7: Thermal metamaterials.
Figure 8: Thermocrystals.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Kushwaha, M. S., Halevi, P., Dobrzynski, L. & Djafari-Rouhani, B. Acoustic band structure of periodic elastic composites. Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 2022–2025 (1993)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Sigalas, M. M. & Economou, E. N. Band structure of elastic waves in two dimensional systems. Solid State Commun. 86, 141–143 (1993)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Martínez-Sala, R. et al. Sound attenuation by sculpture. Nature 378, 241 (1995)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Sanchez-Perez, J. V. et al. Sound attenuation by a two-dimensional array of rigid cylinders. Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 5325–5328 (1998)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Montero de Espinosa, F. R., Jimenez, E. & Torres, M. Ultrasonic band gap in a periodic two-dimensional composite. Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 1208–1211 (1998)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Liu, Z. Y. et al. Locally resonant sonic materials. Science 289, 1734–1736 (2000)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Vasseur, J. O. et al. Experimental and theoretical evidence for the existence of absolute acoustic band gaps in two-dimensional solid phononic crystals. Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 3012–3015 (2001)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Gorishnyy, T., Ullal, C. K., Maldovan, M., Fytas, G. & Thomas, E. L. Hypersonic phononic crystals. Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 115501 (2005)This paper describes the experimental realization of small-scale phononic crystals that control high-frequency hypersonic phonons.

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Cheng, W., Wang, J., Jonas, U., Fytas, G. & Stefanou, N. Observation and tuning of hypersonic bandgaps in colloidal crystals. Nature Mater. 5, 830–836 (2006)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Thomas, E. L., Gorishnyy, T. & Maldovan, M. Phononics: colloidal crystals go hypersonic. Nature Mater. 5, 773–774 (2006)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Yu, J.-K., Mitrovic, S., Tham, D., Varghese, J. & Heath, J. R. Reduction of thermal conductivity in phononic nanomesh structure. Nature Nanotechnol. 5, 718–721 (2010)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Maldovan, M. & Thomas, E. L. Simultaneous localization of phonons and photons in two-dimensional periodic structures. Appl. Phys. Lett. 88, 251907 (2006)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Liang, B., Yuan, B. & Cheng, J. C. Acoustic diode: rectification of acoustic energy flux in one-dimensional systems. Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 104301 (2009)

    Article  ADS  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Liang, B., Guo, X. S., Tu, J., Zhang, D. & Chen, J. C. An acoustic rectifier. Nature Mater. 9, 989–992 (2010)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Li, B. Acoustics: now you hear me, now you don’t. Nature Mater. 9, 962–963 (2010)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Li, X.-F. et al. Tunable unidirectional sound propagation through a sonic-crystal-based acoustic diode. Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 084301 (2011)This paper describes the experimetal realization of an acoustic diode by breaking spatial inversion symmetry in phononic crystals.

    Article  ADS  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Boechler, N., Theocharis, G. & Daraio, C. Bifurcation-based acoustic switching and rectification. Nature Mater. 10, 665–668 (2011)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Pendry, J. B., Schurig, D. & Smith, D. R. Controlling electromagnetic fields. Science 312, 1780–1782 (2006)

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  CAS  PubMed  MATH  Google Scholar 

  19. Leonhardt, U. Optical conformal mapping. Science 312, 1777–1780 (2006)

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  CAS  PubMed  MATH  Google Scholar 

  20. Milton, G. W., Briane, M. & Willis, J. R. On cloaking for elasticity and physical equations with a transformation invariant form. New J. Phys. 8, 248 (2006)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  21. Cummer, S. A. & Schurig, D. One path to acoustic cloaking. New J. Phys. 9, 45 (2007)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  22. Chen, H. & Chan, C. T. Acoustic cloaking in three dimensions using acoustic metamaterials. Appl. Phys. Lett. 91, 183518 (2007)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Cummer, S. A. et al. Scattering theory derivation of a 3D acoustic cloaking shell. Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 024301 (2008)

    Article  ADS  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Chen, H. & Chan, C. T. Acoustic cloaking and transformation acoustics. J. Phys. D 43, 113001 (2010)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Torrent, D. & Dehesa-Sanchez, J. Acoustic cloaking in two-dimensions: a feasible approach. New J. Phys. 10, 063015 (2008)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  26. Cheng, Y., Yang, F., Xu, J. Y. & Liu, X. J. A multilayer structured acoustic cloak with homogeneous isotropic materials. Appl. Phys. Lett. 92, 151913 (2008)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Zhang, S., Cia, X. & Fang, N. Broadband acoustic cloak for ultrasound waves. Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 024301 (2011)This paper describes the experimental realization of acoustic cloaking shells for ultrasound waves using purpose-designed metamaterials.

    Article  ADS  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Chan, C. T. Invisibility cloak for ultrasonic waves. Physics 4, 2 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Farhat, M., Enoch, S., Guenneau, S. & Movchan, A. B. Broadband cylindrical acoustic cloak for linear surface waves in a fluid. Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 134501 (2008)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. Popa, B. I., Zigoneanu, L. & Cummer, S. A. Experimental acoustic ground cloak in air. Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 253901 (2011)

    Article  ADS  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Stenger, N., Wilhelm, M. & Wegener, M. Experiments on elastic cloaking in thin plates. Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 014301 (2012)

    Article  ADS  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Farhat, M., Guenneau, S. & Enoch, S. Ultrabroadband elastic cloaking in thin plates. Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 024301 (2009)

    Article  ADS  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. Brun, M., Guenneau, S. & Movchan, A. B. Achieving control of in-plane elastic waves. Appl. Phys. Lett. 94, 061903 (2009)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. Trigo, M., Bruchhausen, A., Fainstein, A., Jusserand, B. & Thieryy-Mieg, V. Confinement of acoustical vibrations in semiconductor planar phonon cavity. Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 227402 (2002)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Worlock, J. M. & Roukes, M. L. Son et lumière. Nature 421, 802–803 (2003)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Yablonovitch, E. Inhibited spontaneous emission in solid-state physics and electronics. Phys. Rev. Lett. 58, 2059–2062 (1987)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. John, S. Strong localization of photons in certain disordered dielectric superlattices. Phys. Rev. Lett. 58, 2486–2489 (1987)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  38. Joannopoulos, J. D., Villeneuve, P. R. & Fan, S. Photonic crystals: putting a new twist on light. Nature 386, 143–149 (1997)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  39. Maldovan, M. & Thomas, E. L. Periodic Structures and Interference Lithography: for Photonics, Phononics and Mechanics (Wiley, 2008)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  40. Eichenfield, M., Chan, J., Camacho, R. M., Vahala, K. J. & Painter, O. Optomechanical crystals. Nature 462, 78–82 (2009)This paper describes the experimental demonstration of phonon–photon coupling in planar ‘optomechanical’ crystals.

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  41. Psarobas, I. E. et al. Enhanced acousto-optic interactions in a one-dimensional phoxonic cavity. Phys. Rev. B 82, 174303 (2010)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  42. Fainstein, A., Lanzillotti-Kimura, N. D., Jusserand, B. & Perrin, B. Strong optical-mechanical coupling in a vertical GaAs/AlAs microcavity for subterahertz phonons and near-infrared light. Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 037403 (2013)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  43. Sadat-Saleh, S., Benchabane, S., Baida, F. I., Bernal, M. P. & Laude, V. Tailoring simultaneous photonic and phononic band gaps. J. Appl. Phys. 106, 074912 (2009)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  44. Mohammadi, S., Eftekhar, A. A., Khelif, A. & Adibi, A. Simultaneous two-dimensional phononic and photonic band gaps in opto-mechanical crystal slabs. Opt. Express 18, 9164–9172 (2010)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  45. Pennec, Y. et al. Simultaneous existence of phononic and photonic bandgaps in periodic crystal slabs. Opt. Express 18, 14301–14310 (2010)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  46. Safavi-Naeini, A. H. & Painter, O. Design of optomechanical cavities and waveguides on a simultaneous bandgap phononic-photonic crystal slab. Opt. Express 18, 14926–14943 (2010)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  47. Safavi-Naeini, A. H., Mayer Alegre, T. P., Winger, M. & Painter, O. Optomechanics in an ultrahigh-Q two-dimensional photonic crystal cavity. Appl. Phys. Lett. 97, 181106 (2010)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  48. Gavartin, E. et al. Optomechanical coupling in a two-dimensional photonic crystal defect cavity. Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 203902 (2011)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  49. Chan, J. et al. Laser cooling of a nanomechanical oscillator into its quantum ground state. Nature 478, 89–92 (2011)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  50. Safavi-Naeini, A. H. et al. Observation of quantum motion of a nanomechanical resonator. Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 033602 (2012)

    Article  ADS  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  51. Safavi-Naeini, A. H. et al. Electromagnetically induced transparency and slow light with optomechanics. Nature 472, 69–73 (2011)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  52. Heinrich, G., Ludwig, M., Qian, J., Kubala, B. & Marquardt, F. Collective dynamics of optomechanical arrays. Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 043603 (2011)

    Article  ADS  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  53. Grudinin, I. S., Lee, H., Painter, O. & Vahala, K. J. Phonon laser action in a tunable two-level system. Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 083901 (2010)

    Article  ADS  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  54. Akimov, A. V. et al. Hypersonic modulation of light in three-dimensional photonic and phononic band gap materials. Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 033902 (2008)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  55. Papanikolaou, N., Psarobas, I. E. & Stefanou, N. Absolute spectral gaps for infrared light and hypersound in three-dimensional metallodielectric phoxonic crystals. Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 231917 (2010)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  56. Russell, P. S. J., Marin, E., Diez, A., Guenneau, S. & Movchan, A. B. Sonic band gaps in PCF preforms: enhancing the interaction of sound and light. Opt. Express 11, 2555–2560 (2003)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  57. Laude, V. et al. Phononic bandgap guidance of acoustic modes in photonic crystal fibers. Phys. Rev. B 71, 045107 (2005)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  58. Dainese, P. et al. Stimulated Brillouin scattering from multi-GHz-guided acoustic phonons in nanostructured photonic crystal fibres. Nature Phys. 2, 388–392 (2006)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  59. Kang, M. S., Nazarkin, A., Brenn, A. & Russell, P. S. J. Tightly trapped acoustic phonons in photonic crystal fibres as highly nonlinear artificial Raman oscillators. Nature Phys. 5, 276–280 (2009)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  60. Li, B. W., Wang, L. & Casati, G. Thermal diode: rectification of heat flux. Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 184301 (2004)

    Article  ADS  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  61. Terraneo, M., Peyrard, M. & Casati, G. Controlling the energy flow in nonlinear lattices: a model for a thermal rectifier. Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 094302 (2002)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  62. Wang, L. & Li, B. Thermal logic gates: computation with phonons. Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 177208 (2007)

    Article  ADS  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  63. Wang, L. & Li, B. Phononics get hot. Phys. World 21, 27–29 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  64. Chang, C. W., Okawa, D., Majumdar, A. & Zettl, A. Solid-state thermal rectifier. Science 314, 1121–1124 (2006)This paper describes an experimental solid-state thermal diode formed by a non-uniform mass distribution in nanotubes.

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  65. Yang, N., Li, N., Wang, L. & Li, B. Thermal rectification and negative differential thermal resistance in lattices with mass gradient. Phys. Rev. B 76, 020301 (2007)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  66. Fan, C. Z., Gao, Y. & Huang, J. P. Shaped graded materials with an apparent negative thermal conductivity. Appl. Phys. Lett. 92, 251907 (2008)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  67. Chen, T., Weng, C. N. & Chen, J. S. Cloak for curvilinearly anisotropic media in conduction. Appl. Phys. Lett. 93, 114103 (2008)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  68. Guenneau, S., Amra, C. & Veynante, D. Transformation thermodynamics: cloaking and concentrating heat flux. Opt. Express 20, 8207–8218 (2012)

    Article  ADS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  69. Narayana, S. & Sato, Y. Heat flux manipulation by engineered thermal materials. Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 214303 (2012)This paper describes the manipulation of heat conduction using newly developed thermal metamaterials.

    Article  ADS  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  70. Schittny, R., Kadic, M., Guenneau, S. & Wegener, M. Experiments on transformation thermodynamics: molding the flow of heat. Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 195901 (2013)

    Article  ADS  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  71. Hicks, L. D. & Dresselhaus, M. S. Effect of quantum-well structures on the thermoelectric figure of merit. Phys. Rev. B 47, 12727–12731 (1993)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  72. Venkatasubramanian, R., Siivola, E., Colpitts, T. & O’Quinn, B. Thin-film thermoelectric devices with high-room temperature figures of merit. Nature 413, 597–602 (2001)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  73. Harman, T. C., Taylor, P. J., Walsh, M. P. & LaForge, B. E. Quantum dot superlattice thermoelectric materials and devices. Science 297, 2229–2232 (2002)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  74. Hsu, K. F. et al. Cubic AgPbmSbTe2+m: bulk thermoelectric materials with high figure of merit. Science 303, 818–821 (2004)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  75. Kim, W. et al. Thermal conductivity reduction and thermoelectric figure of merit increase by embedding nanoparticles in crystalline semiconductors. Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 045901 (2006)

    Article  ADS  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  76. Poudel, B. et al. High-thermoelectric performance of nanostructured bismuth antimony telluride bulk alloys. Science 320, 634–638 (2008)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  77. Hochbaum, A. I. et al. Enhanced thermoelectric performance of rough silicon nanowires. Nature 451, 163–167 (2008)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  78. Boukai, A. I. et al. Silicon nanowires as efficient thermoelectric materials. Nature 451, 168–171 (2008)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  79. Biswas, K. et al. High-performance bulk thermoelectrics with all-scale hierarchical structures. Nature 489, 414–418 (2012)This paper describes a highly efficient thermoelectric material obtained through the scattering of a wide range of phonons with different wavelengths.

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  80. Chiritescu, C. et al. Ultra low thermal conductivity in disordered WSe2 crystals. Science 315, 351–353 (2007)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  81. Maldovan, M. Narrow low-frequency spectrum and heat management by thermocrystals. Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 025902 (2013)

    Article  ADS  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  82. Mingo, N., Hauser, D., Kobayashi, N. P., Plissonnier, M. & Shakouri, A. Nanoparticle in alloy approach to efficient thermoelectrics: silicides in SiGe. Nano Lett. 9, 711–715 (2009)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  83. Garg, J., Bonini, N., Kozinsky, B. & Marzari, N. Role of disorder and anharmonicity in the thermal conductivity of silicon germanium alloys: a first principle study. Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 045901 (2011)

    Article  ADS  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  84. Kundu, A., Mingo, N., Broido, D. A. & Stewart, D. A. Role of light and heavy embedded nanoparticles on the thermal conductivity of SiGe alloys. Phys. Rev. B 84, 125426 (2011)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  85. Bilal, O. R. & Hussein, M. I. Ultrawide phononic band gap for combined in-plane and out-of-plane waves. Phys. Rev. E 84, 065701 (2011)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA,

    Martin Maldovan

  2. School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, North Avenue, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA,

    Martin Maldovan

Authors
  1. Martin Maldovan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Martin Maldovan.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing financial interests.

PowerPoint slides

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Maldovan, M. Sound and heat revolutions in phononics. Nature 503, 209–217 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12608

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12608

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing