Nonlinear phononics using atomically thin membranes

Abstract

Phononic crystals and acoustic metamaterials are used to tailor phonon and sound propagation properties by utilizing artificial, periodic structures. Analogous to photonic crystals, phononic band gaps can be created, which influence wave propagation and, more generally, allow engineering of the acoustic properties of a system. Beyond that, nonlinear phenomena in periodic structures have been extensively studied in photonic crystals and atomic Bose-Einstein condensates in optical lattices. However, creating nonlinear phononic crystals or nonlinear acoustic metamaterials remains challenging and only few examples have been demonstrated. Here, we show that atomically thin and periodically pinned membranes support coupled localized modes with nonlinear dynamics. The proposed system provides a platform for investigating nonlinear phononics.