Journal Club Theme of April 2012: Phononics: Structural Dynamics of Materials
Engineering structures are made out of materials and as such there is a natural hierarchy in which a material’s intrinsic properties contribute to shaping up the structure’s response. It is possible however to reverse this hierarchy and engineer materials that are made out of structures. In this case, the intrinsic properties of a material are shaped by the structural response. Such a configuration can only be realized with a repeated structure, forming an array of identical unit cells.