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.

Phononics

Colloidal crystals go hypersonic

Nature Materials volume 5, pages 773–774 (2006)Cite this article

Hypersonic phononic crystals provide a wealth of opportunities to reflect, focus and localize high-frequency acoustic waves. Using colloidal crystals for this purpose provides opportunities for simplified fabrication and flexible tuning of the properties.

Artificial periodic crystals can modify the propagation of sound waves with specific frequencies. The ability of these so-called phononic crystals to manipulate sound, in the same way that photonic crystals control light, makes them suitable for novel acoustical devices such us sound filters, resonant cavities, or integrated acoustical circuits. To create phononic crystals, structures must be fabricated with periodic variation in density and sound velocities. On page 830 of this issue1, Cheng and colleagues fabricate a three-dimensional hypersonic phononic crystal by assembling polystyrene nanospheres into a face-centred-cubic lattice — a simple method commonly used to create colloidal crystals. In addition to the experimental realization of three-dimensional phononic crystals at small length scales, they also report on the first detailed characterization of a hypersonic bandgap.

This is a preview of subscription content

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1: Phononic bandgaps.

References

  1. Cheng, W., Wang, J., Jonas, U., Fytas, G. & Stefanou, N. Nature Mater. 5, 830–836 (2006).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Gorishnyy, T., Ullal, C. K., Maldovan, M., Fytas, G. Thomas, E. L. Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 115501 (2005).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Maldovan, M. & Thomas, E. L. Appl. Phys. Lett. 88, 251907 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Zhang, X, Liu, Z. Appl. Phys. Lett. 85, 341–343 (2004).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Affiliations

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

    Edwin L. Thomas, Taras Gorishnyy & Martin Maldovan

Authors
  1. Edwin L. Thomas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Taras Gorishnyy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Martin Maldovan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Thomas, E., Gorishnyy, T. & Maldovan, M. Colloidal crystals go hypersonic. Nature Mater 5, 773–774 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1744

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1744

Further reading

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