Universal coupling between the photonics and phononics in a 3D graphene sponge

TL;DR

This paper introduces a 3D graphene sponge that efficiently couples photons to phonons across a broad frequency spectrum, enabling innovative light-controlled sound and heat applications.

Contribution

It reports the development of a novel 3D graphene structure with exceptional photon-phonon coupling efficiency over a wide frequency range, advancing photonics and phononics integration.

Findings

High absorption and low inertia of 3G-sponge enable efficient photon-heat-sound transduction.

Demonstrated an audio receiver using amplitude demodulation of electromagnetic waves.

Broadband efficiency from MHz to PHz frequencies.

Abstract

Photon-phonon coupling holds strong potential for sound and temperature control with light, opening new horizons in detector technology, remote sound generation and signal broadcasting. Here, we report on a novel stereoscopic ultralight converter based on a three dimensional graphene structure 3G-sponge, which exhibits very high absorption, near-to-air density, low inertia, and negligible effective heat capacity. We studied the heat and sound generation under the excitation of electromagnetic waves. 3G-sponge shows exceptional photon to heat and sound transduction efficiency over an enormous frequency range from MHz to PHz. As an application, we present an audio receiver based on a 3G-sponge amplitude demodulation. Our results will lead to a wide range of applications from light-controlled sound sources to broadband high-frequency graphene electronics.