We employ spontaneous Brillouin light scattering spectroscopy and detailed theoretical calculations to reveal and identify elastic excitations inside the band gap of hypersonic hybrid superlattices. Surface and cavity modes, their strength and anticrossing are unambiguously documented and fully controlled by layer thickness, elasticity, and sequence design. This new soft matter based superlattice platform allows facile engineering of the density of states and opens new pathways to tunable phoxonic crystals.

Determination of the anisotropic mechanical properties of nanostructured hybrid films is of great importance to improve fabrication and to enable reliable utility. Here, we employ spontaneous Brillouin light spectroscopy to record the phononic dispersion relation along the two symmetry directions in a supported PMMA (poly(methylmethacrylate))-BaTiO hybrid superlattice (SL) with a lattice constant of about 140 nm. Several dispersive elastic modes are resolved for in-plane wave propagation, whereas along the periodicity direction the SL opens a wide propagation stop band for hypersonic phonons and near UV photons both centered at about 280 nm. A thorough theoretical analysis based on the finite element method quantitatively captures the band diagrams along the two main symmetry directions, helps identify the large density mismatch effect on the unexpectedly low sound phase velocity, and reveals significant anisotropy of the SL elastic tensor. Phonon propagation is a sensitive index of the structure, density, and the mechanical moduli of nanocomposite films.

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In this study, we investigate localized and resonant optical waves associated with a semi-infinite superlattice made out of superconductor-dielectric bilayers and terminated with a cap layer. Both transverse electric and transverse magnetic waves are considered. These surface modes are analogous to the so-called Tamm states associated with electronic states found at the surface of materials. The surface guided modes induced by the cap layer strongly depend on whether the superlattice ends with a superconductor or a dielectric layer, the thickness of the surface layer, the temperature of the superconductor layer as well as on the polarization of the waves. Different kinds of surface modes are found and their properties examined. These structures can be used to realize the highly sensitive photonic crystal sensors.