Acoustic Phonon Engineering Using Nanostructures

Advances in material science and fabrication techniques enabled the fabrication of samples with nanometric dimensions where it is possible to control the propagation of photons (NIR range) and acoustic-phonons (GHz-THz frequencies) in a single device. In this presentation, I will describe the behavior of a plethora of devices able to control acoustic phonons and the interactions with light and charge at the nanoscale [1-3]. I will introduce some strategies to generate, manipulate and detect ultra-high frequency acoustic phonons both in the time and spectral domains [4-5].
The presented results open a new playground in the control of acoustic vibrations in solids and constitute a new platform to study topological effects, quantum phenomena, and thermal transport properties.

[1] F. R. Lamberti, et al., Optomechanical properties of GaAs/AlAs micropillar resonators operating in the 18 GHz range, Opt. Exp. 25, 24437-24447, 2017.
[2] Ortiz, O., et al., Physical Review B 100, 085430, 2019
[3] G. Arregui, N. D. Lanzillotti-Kimura, C. M. Sotomayor-Torres, and P. D. García, Anderson Photon-Phonon Colocalization in Certain Random Superlattices, Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 043903, 2019
[4] N. D. Lanzillotti-Kimura, A. Fainstein, and B. Jusserand, Towards GHz-THz cavity optomechanics in DBR-based semiconductor resonators, Ultrasonics 56, 80, 2015
[5] M. Esmann et al., Brillouin scattering in hybrid optophononic Bragg micropillar resonators at 300 GHz, Optica 6, 854, 2019