Abstract
Phonon engineering at the nanoscale holds immense promise for a myriad of applications. However, the design of phononic devices continues to rely on regular shapes chosen according to long-established simple rules. Here, we demonstrate an inverse design approach to create a two-dimensional phononic metasurface exhibiting a highly anisotropic phonon dispersion along the main axes of the Brillouin zone. A partial hypersonic bandgap of approximately 3.5 GHz is present along one axis, with gap closure along the orthogonal axis. This remarkable level of control is achieved through genetically optimized unit cells with shapes exceeding conventional intuition. We experimentally validate our theoretical predictions using Brillouin light scattering, confirming the effectiveness of the inverse design method. Our approach unlocks the potential for automated engineering of phononic metasurfaces with on-demand functionalities, paving the way for innovative phononic devices beyond the limitations of traditional design paradigms
ACS Nano 18, 18307 (2024)