This experimental laser ultrasonic setup in collaborator Nick Boechler's lab will create phonons with nature-defying characteristics. (Image courtesy of Nicholas Boechler)
UA Engineers Twist Physics Laws to Boost Sonic Science
Materials science engineer Pierre Deymier is bending sound waves in nature-defying ways that could quiet our cities, heal our bodies and provide new sources of energy.
For decades, advances in electronics and optics have driven progress in information technology, energy and biomedicine. Now researchers at the University of Arizona are pioneering a new field — phononics, the science of sound — with repercussions potentially just as profound.
"If engineers can get acoustic waves to travel in unnatural ways, as they are starting to do with light waves, our world could look and sound radically different," said Pierre Deymier, UA professor and head of materials science and engineering and a member of the BIO5 Institute.
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