Direction-dependent elastic properties and phononic behavior of PMMA/BaTiO 3 nanocomposite thin films

Determination of the anisotropic mechanical properties of nanostructured hybrid films is of great importance to improve fabrication and to enable reliable utility. Here, we employ spontaneous Brillouin light spectroscopy to record the phononic dispersion relation along the two symmetry directions in a supported PMMA (poly(methylmethacrylate))-BaTiO3 hybrid superlattice (SL) with a lattice constant of about 140 nm. Several dispersive elastic modes are resolved for in-plane wave propagation, whereas along the periodicity direction the SL opens a wide propagation stop band for hypersonic phonons and near UV photons both centered at about 280 nm. A thorough theoretical analysis based on the fin…