Hybridization-type band gaps are known to persist, despite structural disorder, in phononic crystals; however their fabrication remains challenging for all-solid hypersonic composites. Here, the authors utilize the elastic anisotropy at the interface of polymer-tethered colloidal particles to control phonon propagation in GHz regime.

From: E. Alonso-Redondo, M. Schmitt, Z. Urbach, C. M. Hui, R. Sainidou, P. Rembert, K. Matyjaszewski, M. R. Bockstaller, and G. Fytas
“A new class of tunable hypersonic phononic crystals based on polymer-tethered colloids“,
Nat. Commun.
6 Article number: 8309, (2015).