Deals with the exploration of phononic properties of meso- and nanostructured colloid-based composite materials at hypersonic (GHz) frequencies. This thesis includes the emerging field of phononics, the mechanical analogue of photonics, treats the propagation and manipulation of acoustic waves in structured materials.

Materials that can mold the ?ow of elastic waves of certain energy in certain directions are called phononic materials. The present thesis deals essentially with such phononic systems, which are structured in the mesoscale (1 lm), and with their individual components. Such systems show interesting phononic properties in the hypersonic region, i.e., at frequencies in the GHz range. It is shown that colloidal systems are excellent model systems for the realization of such phononic materials. Therefore, different structures and particle architectures are investigated by Brillouin light...