Phononic Crystal Sensors and Their Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Phononic crystals, designed to control and manipulate the propagation of acoustic and elastic waves, are periodic composite materials with a spatial modulation of elasticity, mass density and the longitudinal and transverse velocities of these waves. They feature bandgaps, where the propagation of waves is forbidden. During the last three decades, phononic crystals have gained much attention due to their rich physics of sound propagation. A promising feature of phononic crystals when integrating a defect in a regular structure is the existence of modes, which cause characteristic discontinuities in the bandgap. The underlying localized modes exhibit resonant characteristics and therefore become a simple measure of material and geometric properties, provided that the position of the respective mode on the frequency scale and its amplitude are related to defect properties of, first of all, the material therein.

This is the entrance point to phononic crystal (PnC) sensors. This Special Issue will collect original work showing a variety of concepts in measuring the physical, chemical or biochemical values of pure substances and complex mixtures. PnC sensors belong to the group of resonant sensors. The correlation between the frequency of the cavity mode and the primary material parameters, the speed of sound and the viscosity of a material, usually a liquid confined in the cavity, is the first challenge in the application of phononic crystals as a sensor platform. Their basic principle of operation is a standing wave whose frequency is determined jointly by the velocity of the wave and the dimensions of the confinement structure, which becomes the point of measurement. A second challenge is discovering the relation of these two primary physical values to the physical, chemical or biological unknowns of interest. In other words, phononic crystal sensors should become useful for determining secondary values of practical interest in our environment as well as in technical systems such as the concentration of an analyte in a pipe, in the channels of a microfluidic system or in biochemical reactors.

I would like to invite you to submit either original research articles containing theoretical and/or experimental investigations or review articles providing an up-to-date overview and critical discussion of the state-of-the-art of phononic crystal-based sensors.

Prof. Dr. Ralf Lucklum
Guest Editor

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• phononic crystal sensors
• phononic crystals with defects
• resonant sensors
• acoustic microsensors
• ultrasonic sensors