Interfacial acoustic waves in one-dimensional anisotropic phononic bicrystals with a symmetric unit cell

Surface acoustic waves in the continuous spectrum of Bloch waves in piezoelectric one-dimensional phononic crystals

This paper theoretically investigates surface acoustic waves (SAWs) which emerge within the continuous spectrum of bulk Bloch waves in piezoelectric one-dimensional phononic crystals. Accordingly, these SAWs may be treated as an example of the bound states in the continuum (BIC). The equations which determine the existence of such BIC-SAWs have been derived. Unlike SAWs in the frequency intervals forbidden for bulk Bloch waves, BIC-SAWs are governed not by a single purely real dispersion equation but by sets of equations, so BIC-SAWs prove to be robust only to a consistent change of a definite number of free parameters characterizing the wave propagation. The form of the derived equations allows the establishment of the conditions on the frequency and other parameters under which the BIC-SAW exists. The number of conditions depends on the number of bulk waves in the frequency interval under consideration. In the case of generic crystallographic symmetry, there are three, five, and seven conditions which have to be fulfilled for a BIC-SAWs to coexist with one pair, two pairs, and three pairs of bulk Bloch waves, respectively. It is shown that the crystallographic symmetry may reduce the number of conditions to two, three and four, respectively. Numerical computations confirm analytic results.

Stoneley-type waves in anisotropic periodic superlattices

The paper investigates the existence of interfacial (Stoneley-type) acoustic waves localised at the internal boundary between two semi-infinite superlattices which are adjoined with each other to form one-dimensional phononic bicrystal. Each superlattice is a periodic sequence of perfectly bonded homogeneous and/or functionally graded layers of general anisotropy. Given any asymmetric arrangement of unit cells (periods) of superlattices, it is found that the maximum number of interfacial waves, which can emerge at a fixed tangential wavenumber for the frequency varying within a stopband, is three for the lowest stopband and six for any upper stopband. Moreover, we show that this number of three or six waves in the lowest or upper stopband, is actually the maximum for the number of waves occurring per stopband in a given bicrystal plus their number in the "complementary" bicrystal, which is obtained by swapping upper and lower superlattices of the initial one (so that both bicrystals have the same band structure). An example is provided demonstrating attainability of this upper bound, i.e. the existence of six interfacial waves in a stopband. The results obtained under no assumptions regarding the material anisotropy are also specified to the case of monoclinic symmetry leading to acoustic mode decoupling.