Metamaterial-based acoustic analogues of quantum phenomena

Such phenomena need to be studied in detail to design and develop materials that yield quantum properties. For example, there has been much interest recently in studying 'twistronics' that emerges from juxtaposing multiple layers of 2D materials, such as graphene. However, studying such phenomena in the original materials can be challenging given the scale at which they exist and the stringent requirements on temperature, etc. Fascinating recent investigations show that we can achieve acoustic analogues of exotic quantum phenomena using metamaterials that are easy to fabricate and test under normal room-temperature conditions. Dirac Cones, the Quantum Hall Effect, etc. have been studied in their acoustic analogues. This project seeks to develop in these directions and establish a testbed at IIT Madras for the simulation of quantum effects using acoustic metamaterials and phononic crystals. The goal is to study and list the quantum phenomena of interest and then design acoustic metamaterials that can best mimic such effects before fabricating them. Attention will be given to concepts that are amenable to 3D and 4D printing techniques. A campaign of trials and tests will be developed to study: (a) computational acoustics; (b) quantum acoustics; and (c) quantum materials. The results will lead to novel and scalable devices for applications in sensing and computation.