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Phononic waveguides (PnWGs) are devices with rationally designed periodic structures to manipulate mechanical oscillations and to engineer and control the propagation of acoustic waves, thus allowing for frequency and band selection of wave transmission and routing, promising for both classical and quantum transduction on chip-scale platforms with various constituent materials of interest. They can be incorporated into both electromechanical and optomechanical signal transduction schemes. Here, we present an overview of emerging micro/nanoscale PnWGs and offer perspectives for future. We evaluate the typical structural designs, frequency scaling, and phononic band structures of the PnWGs. Material choices, fabrication techniques, and characterization schemes are discussed based on different PnWG designs. For classical transduction schemes, an all-phononic integrated circuit perspective is proposed. Toward emerging quantum applications, the potential of utilizing PnWGs as universal interfaces and transduction channels has been examined. We envision PnWGs with extraordinary propagation properties, such as nonreciprocity and active tunability, can be realized with unconventional design strategies (e.g., inverse design) and advanced materials (e.g., van der Waals layered crystals), opening opportunities in both classical and quantum signal transduction schemes.

Circular microdisk mechanical resonators vibrating in their various resonance modes have emerged as important platforms for a wide spectrum of technologies including photonics, cavity optomechanics, optical metrology, and quantum optics. Optically transduced microdisk resonators made of advanced materials such as silicon carbide (SiC), diamond, and other wide- or ultrawide-bandgap materials are especially attractive. They are also of strong interest in the exploration of transducers or detectors for harsh environments and mission-oriented applications. Here we report on the first experimental investigation and analysis of energetic proton radiation effects on microdisk resonators made of 3C-SiC thin film grown on silicon substrate. We fabricate and study microdisks with diameters of ∼48 µm and ∼36 µm, and with multimode resonances in the ∼1 to 20 MHz range. We observe consistent downshifts of multimode resonance frequencies, and measure fractional frequency downshifts from the first three flexural resonance modes, up to ∼-3420 and -1660 ppm for two devices, respectively, in response to 1.8 MeV proton radiation at a dosage of 10¹⁴/cm². Such frequency changes are attributed to the radiation-induced Young’s modulus change of ∼0.38% and ∼0.09%, respectively. These devices also exhibit proton detection responsivity of ℜ ≈ -5 to -6 × 10⁻⁶Hz/proton. The results provide new knowledge of proton radiation effects in SiC materials, and may lead to better understanding and exploitation of micro/nanoscale devices for harsh-environment sensing, optomechanics, and integrated photonics applications.