Scientific Achievement

Researchers in the Nanomachines Program demonstrated coherent generation, detection, and control of acoustic phonons up to 3 THz by engineering van der Waals heterostructures.

Significance and Impact

The ability to manipulate THz phonons could enable THz phononic metamaterials for ultra-broadband acoustic filters and modulators and open new routes for thermal engineering.

Research Details

  • The required material control at sub-nm precision was achieved by atomically clean interfaces of van der Waals materials
  • High-fidelity phonon sensing was enabled by exciton-phonon coupling and strong light-matter interactions in a single layer of WSe2
  • Direct tracking the flow of THz phonons using ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy

Publication Details

Y. Yoon, Z. Lu, C. Uzundal, R. Qi, W. Zhao, S. Chen, Q. Feng, W. Kim, M.H. Naik, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, S.G. Louie, M.F. Crommie, F. Wang, Nature (2024).

DOI:10.1038/s41586-024-07604-9

Work was performed in part at the NERSC.