Publications

Research on micro-sized acoustic bandgap structures

El-Kady, I.; Tuck, Melanie R.; McCormick, Frederick B.

Phononic crystals (or acoustic crystals) are the acoustic wave analogue of photonic crystals. Here a periodic array of scattering inclusions located in a homogeneous host material forbids certain ranges of acoustic frequencies from existence within the crystal, thus creating what are known as acoustic (or phononic) bandgaps. The vast majority of phononic crystal devices reported prior to this LDRD were constructed by hand assembling scattering inclusions in a lossy viscoelastic medium, predominantly air, water or epoxy, resulting in large structures limited to frequencies below 1 MHz. Under this LDRD, phononic crystals and devices were scaled to very (VHF: 30-300 MHz) and ultra (UHF: 300-3000 MHz) high frequencies utilizing finite difference time domain (FDTD) modeling, microfabrication and micromachining technologies. This LDRD developed key breakthroughs in the areas of micro-phononic crystals including physical origins of phononic crystals, advanced FDTD modeling and design techniques, material considerations, microfabrication processes, characterization methods and device structures. Micro-phononic crystal devices realized in low-loss solid materials were emphasized in this work due to their potential applications in radio frequency communications and acoustic imaging for medical ultrasound and nondestructive testing. The results of the advanced modeling, fabrication and integrated transducer designs were that this LDRD produced the 1st measured phononic crystals and phononic crystal devices (waveguides) operating in the VHF (67 MHz) and UHF (937 MHz) frequency bands and established Sandia as a world leader in the area of micro-phononic crystals.