Edge Phonon Excitations in a Chiral Self-Assembled Supramolecular Nanoribbon

By design, coupled
mechanical oscillators offer a playground for
the study of crystalline topology and related properties. Particularly,
non-centrosymmetric, supramolecular nanocrystals feature a complex
phonon spectrum where edge modes may evolve. Here we show, employing
classical atomistic calculations, that the edges of a chiral supramolecular
nanoribbon can host defined edge phonon states. We suggest that the
topology of several edge modes in the phonon spectrum is nontrivial
and thermally insulated from bulk states. By means of molecular dynamics,
we excite a supramolecular bond to launch a directional excitation
along the edge without considerable bulk or back-propagation. Our
results suggest that supramolecular monolayers can be employed to
engineer phonon states that are robust against backscattering, toward
supramolecular thermal waveguides, diodes, and logics.