{"id":343,"date":"2021-02-09T09:23:23","date_gmt":"2021-02-08T23:23:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qo.lab.uq.edu.au\/?page_id=343"},"modified":"2025-05-16T19:18:46","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T09:18:46","slug":"phononics","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/qo.lab.uq.edu.au\/?page_id=343","title":{"rendered":"Phononics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">The goal of this research is to develop the building blocks for scalable integrated phononic circuits, similar to those existing in the electronic and optical realms. Phononic circuits have many potential applications, including scalable computing based on mechanical vibrations, or phonons, confined at nanoscale in acoustic waveguides on a silicon chip. Nanomechanical computers of this kind promise inherent robustness to the ionising radiation that degrades semiconductor electronics in low-earth-orbit and deep space environments, as well as in close proximity to nuclear reactors and particle accelerators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video height=\"544\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 960 \/ 544;\" width=\"960\" controls src=\"https:\/\/qo.lab.uq.edu.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/mesh-Guide-coupler-guide-1.avi\"><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Animation of an acoustic wave launched in an acoustic waveguide formed by a high tensile stress silicon nitride membrane on a silicon chip. The acoustic wave is generated electrostatically through the force between an electrode patterned on the chip (gold) and an electrode hovering above the chip (silver sphere). Motion of the membrane can be read out interferometrically with high precision (red laser). Animation credit: N. Mauranyapin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:100px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Recent Work<\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-ub-divider ub_divider ub-divider-orientation-horizontal\" id=\"ub_divider_cf485eda-43f5-40b2-bc45-68b1afc7d092\"><div class=\"ub_divider_wrapper\" style=\"position: relative; margin-bottom: 2px; width: 100%; height: 2px; \" data-divider-alignment=\"center\"><div class=\"ub_divider_line\" style=\"border-top: 2px solid #ccc; margin-top: 2px; \"><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-left has-large-font-size\" id=\"acoustic_tunnelling\">Engineering error correcting dynamics in nanomechanical systems<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-css-opacity has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ffffff;color:#ffffff\"\/>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"906\" height=\"693\" src=\"https:\/\/qo.lab.uq.edu.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/sci_reports.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1503\" style=\"width:634px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/qo.lab.uq.edu.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/sci_reports.png 906w, https:\/\/qo.lab.uq.edu.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/sci_reports-300x229.png 300w, https:\/\/qo.lab.uq.edu.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/sci_reports-768x587.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 906px) 100vw, 906px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Nanomechanical oscillators are used to encode information and are therefore extremely useful in the context of computing. They promise better operating conditions in harsh environments compared to semiconductor-based machine, however, they are vulnerable to transient errors called single-event upsets (SEUs) which occur frequently in conventional computers. In this work, we demonstrate a system of Duffing oscillators that showcase a novel approach to using SEUs for error-correction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration:underline;\">Read more:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>X. Jin, <em>et al., <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41598-024-71679-7\">Engineering error correcting dynamics in nanomechanical systems.<\/a> <em>Scientific Reports. <\/em><strong>14<\/strong>, 20431, (2024). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:50px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-ub-divider ub_divider ub-divider-orientation-horizontal\" id=\"ub_divider_138ca904-b320-40fd-924f-87779362101e\"><div class=\"ub_divider_wrapper\" style=\"position: relative; margin-bottom: 2px; width: 100%; height: 2px; \" data-divider-alignment=\"center\"><div class=\"ub_divider_line\" style=\"border-top: 2px solid #ccc; margin-top: 2px; \"><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-left has-large-font-size\" id=\"acoustic_tunnelling\">Acoustically driven single-frequency mechanical logic<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-css-opacity has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ffffff;color:#ffffff\"\/>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"686\" height=\"411\" src=\"https:\/\/qo.lab.uq.edu.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/er_phononics.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1506\" srcset=\"https:\/\/qo.lab.uq.edu.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/er_phononics.png 686w, https:\/\/qo.lab.uq.edu.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/er_phononics-300x180.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 686px) 100vw, 686px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>This work presents the first demonstration of an all-acoustic logic gate, utilising the biostability of a nonlinear mechanical resonator coupled to input and output acoustic waveguides. A universal NAND gate is realized with an exceptionally low error rate, establishing a key milestone toward scalable mechanical computing. This approach offers the potential for low energy consumption per operation and inherent robustness in harsh environments, such as space, outperforming conventional electronic systems in these conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration:underline;\">Read more:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>E. Romero, <em>et al., <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1103\/PhysRevApplied.21.054029\">Acoustically driven single-frequency mechanical logic.<\/a> <em>Phys Rev Applied. <\/em><strong>21<\/strong>, 054029, (2024). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:50px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-ub-divider ub_divider ub-divider-orientation-horizontal\" id=\"ub_divider_8135baee-cbd7-410f-ba3e-ebbf4b6243ed\"><div class=\"ub_divider_wrapper\" style=\"position: relative; margin-bottom: 2px; width: 100%; height: 2px; \" data-divider-alignment=\"center\"><div class=\"ub_divider_line\" style=\"border-top: 2px solid #ccc; margin-top: 2px; \"><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-left has-large-font-size\" id=\"propagation_and_imaging\"><strong>Directional emission in an on-chip acoustic waveguide<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"428\" src=\"https:\/\/qo.lab.uq.edu.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/tim_paper-1024x428.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1374\" srcset=\"https:\/\/qo.lab.uq.edu.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/tim_paper-1024x428.png 1024w, https:\/\/qo.lab.uq.edu.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/tim_paper-300x125.png 300w, https:\/\/qo.lab.uq.edu.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/tim_paper-768x321.png 768w, https:\/\/qo.lab.uq.edu.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/tim_paper.png 1143w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Directional emission is a key feature of wave-based technologies, as it saves energy by only sending waves in the desired direction, and allows new applications based on wave steering. In this work we showed we can perform directional emission on a suspended mechanical waveguide by using a very simply two-emitter phased array. This adds directional emission into the toolbox of phononic circuit design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration:underline;\">Read more:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>T. M. F. Hirsch,&nbsp;<em>et. al.,<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1063\/5.0180794\">Directional emission in an on-chip acoustic waveguide.<\/a>&nbsp;<em><em>Appl. Phys. Lett.<\/em><\/em> <strong>124 <\/strong>1: 013504, (2024). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:500px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-6c531013 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-6c531013 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"352\" height=\"93\" src=\"https:\/\/qo.lab.uq.edu.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/qqol.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1058\" srcset=\"https:\/\/qo.lab.uq.edu.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/qqol.png 352w, https:\/\/qo.lab.uq.edu.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/qqol-300x79.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 352px) 100vw, 352px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-ub-divider ub_divider ub-divider-orientation-vertical\" id=\"ub_divider_2aa1634e-695f-4ae8-82f5-a69ebb8ab9f7\"><div class=\"ub_divider_wrapper\" style=\"position: relative; width: 2px; height: 100px; \" data-divider-alignment=\"center\"><div class=\"ub_divider_line\" style=\"border-left: 2px solid #ccc; width: fit-content; height: 100px; \"><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-vertical is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-fe9cc265 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2025 University of Queensland <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uq.edu.au\/legal\/copyright-privacy-disclaimer\/\">UQ Privacy Policy<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The goal of this research is to develop the building blocks for scalable integrated phononic circuits, similar to those existing in the electronic and optical realms. Phononic circuits have many potential applications, including scalable computing based on mechanical vibrations, or phonons, confined at nanoscale in acoustic waveguides on a silicon chip. Nanomechanical computers of this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-343","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"featured_image_src":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qo.lab.uq.edu.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qo.lab.uq.edu.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qo.lab.uq.edu.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qo.lab.uq.edu.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qo.lab.uq.edu.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=343"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/qo.lab.uq.edu.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1678,"href":"https:\/\/qo.lab.uq.edu.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/343\/revisions\/1678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qo.lab.uq.edu.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}