Tunable phononic transparency and opacity with isotopic defects

Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) 1 Fusionopolis Way, #16-16 Connexis, Singapore 138632, Republic of Singapore

Received: 28 November 2025
Accepted: 18 May 2026

Abstract

In an isotopically disordered harmonic chain, phonon transmission attenuates exponentially with distance because of multiple scattering by the isotopic defects. We propose a simple and systematic method, which is based on the static structure factor, for arranging the isotopic defects to suppress or enhance phonon scattering within a targeted frequency window (TFW), resulting in frequency-selective maximization or minimization of phonon transmission. The phononic transparency and opacity effects are demonstrated numerically from the changes in the transmission coefficient and the phonon inverse participation ratio. We briefly discuss how the underlying concept can be extended to the design of aperiodic superlattices to improve or block phononic transmission and control coherent phonon transport.