Phoxonic Hybrid Superlattice

We studied experimentally and theoretically the direction-dependent elastic and electromagnetic wave propagation in a supported film of hybrid PMMA (poly[methyl-methacrylate])-TiO2 superlattice (SL). In the direction normal to the layers, this one-dimensional periodic structure opens propagation band gaps for both hypersonic (GHz) phonons and near-UV photons. The high mismatch of elastic and optical impedance results in a large dual phoxonic band gap. The presence of defects inherent to the spin-coating fabrication technique is sensitively manifested in the band gap region. Utilizing Brillouin light scattering, phonon propagation along the layers was observed to be distinctly different from…