Thermocrystals - Generation, filtering and detection of coherent phonons

The objective of the Present Project is to establish at the Center a set of numerical and experimental tools to design nanomaterials with specific/desired phonon properties (i.e. thermocrystals), for applications that include nanoelectronics, thermoelectricity, thermal management, and nanometrology. The particular goal will be to computationally design, and physically fabricate, thermocrystals that can be used as coherent phonon sources, filters and detectors (i.e. for nanometrology). Thermocrystals are nanostructured systems which treat heat like sound and bring phonon management to the boundary zone between sound and heat. At nanoscale lengths phonon transport is either incoherent (random phase and particle like behaviour) or coherent (in phase like waves). The coherent contribution can be enhanced by exciting nanostructures with ultrafast light pulses, allowing phonon resolved spectroscopy.