Broadband topological valley transport of elastic wave in reconfigurable phononic crystal plate

Topological insulators have attracted intensive attention due to their robust properties of path defect immunity, with diverse applications in electromagnetic, acoustic, and elastic systems. The recent development of elastic topological insulators (ETIs), based on artificially structured phononic crystals, has injected new momentum into the manipulation of elastic waves. Earlier ETIs with unreconfigurable geometry and narrow frequency bandgaps hinder the exploration and design of adaptable devices. In this work, a tunable phononic crystal plate with Y-shaped prisms is designed to support valley transport of elastic waves, based on the analogy of the quantum valley Hall effect. By rotating the prisms to reconstruct the configuration, the mirror symmetry is broken to open a new bandgap. Based on this characteristic, we design an interface between two ETIs with different symmetry-broken geometries, which supports topologically protected edge states. We further design a reconfigurable device for elastic wave channel switching and beam splitting and demonstrate it both numerically and experimentally. In addition, in order to meet the requirement of the wide frequency range, the genetic algorithm is adopted to optimize the geometry so as to achieve the broadband valley transportation of elastic waves. The results obtained in this paper can promote the practical applications of tunable broadband elastic wave transmission.

Automated summary

This study focuses on the design of tunable phononic crystal plates with Y-shaped prisms to support valley transport of elastic waves based on an analogy of the quantum valley Hall effect, breaking mirror symmetry to open new bandgaps. By designing interfaces between ETIs with different symmetry-broken geometries, topologically protected edge states are supported. A reconfigurable device for elastic wave channel switching and beam splitting is demonstrated both numerically and experimentally, showing potential for practical applications in broadband elastic wave transmission.