Phononic Crystal Made of Silicon Ridges on a Membrane for Liquid Sensing.

We propose the design of a phononic crystal to sense the acoustic properties of a liquid that is constituted by an array of silicon ridges on a membrane. In contrast to other concepts, the ridges are immersed in the liquid. The introduction of a suitable cavity in the periodic array gives rise to a confined defect mode with high localization in the cavity region and strong solid-liquid interaction, which make it sensitive to the acoustic properties of the liquid. By using a finite element method simulation, we theoretically study the transmission and cavity excitation of an incident flexural wave of the membrane. The observation of the vibrations of this mode can be achieved either outside the area of the phononic crystal or just above the cavity. We discuss the existence of the resonant modes, as well as its quality factor and sensitivity to liquid properties as a function of the geometrical parameters. The performance of the proposed sensor has then been tested to detect the variation in NaI concentration in a NaI-water mixture.

Physics of surface vibrational resonances: pillared phononic crystals, metamaterials, and metasurfaces.

The introduction of engineered resonance phenomena on surfaces has opened a new frontier in surface science and technology. Pillared phononic crystals, metamaterials, and metasurfaces are an emerging class of artificial structured media, featuring surfaces that consist of pillars-or branching substructures-standing on a plate or a substrate. A pillared phononic crystal exhibits Bragg band gaps, while a pillared metamaterial may feature both Bragg band gaps and local resonance hybridization band gaps. These two band-gap phenomena, along with other unique wave dispersion characteristics, have been exploited for a variety of applications spanning a range of length scales and covering multiple disciplines in applied physics and engineering, particularly in elastodynamics and acoustics. The intrinsic placement of pillars on a semi-infinite surface-yielding a metasurface-has similarly provided new avenues for the control and manipulation of wave propagation. Classical waves are admitted in pillared media, including Lamb waves in plates and Rayleigh and Love waves along the surfaces of substrates, ranging in frequency from hertz to several gigahertz. With the presence of the pillars, these waves couple with surface resonances richly creating new phenomena and properties in the subwavelength regime and in some applications at higher frequencies as well. At the nanoscale, it was shown that atomic-scale resonances-stemming from nanopillars-alter the fundamental nature of conductive thermal transport by reducing the group velocities and generating mode localizations across the entire spectrum of the constituent material well into the terahertz regime. In this article, we first overview the history and development of pillared materials, then provide a detailed synopsis of a selection of key research topics that involve the utilization of pillars or similar branching substructures in different contexts. Finally, we conclude by providing a short summary and some perspectives on the state of the field and its promise for further future development.

Elastic stubbed metamaterial plate with torsional resonances.

We report on a new mechanism involving the torsional resonance of stubs to achieve the negative effective shear modulus of an elastic metamaterial plate. Combined with a mechanism to create a negative mass density, we develop a general method to set up and enlarge a shear-horizontal-polarized double-negative branch in the elastic metamaterial plate with stubs on both sides. We explore the capabilities of this structure for polarization filtering, mode conversion and abnormal refraction. It is shown that, this metamaterial plate behaves divergently against the polarization of incident waves propagating along ΓX direction in a square lattice crystal: it behaves as a double-negative system for zero-order shear horizontal (SH0) wave but as a single-negative one for zero-order antisymmetric (A0) or symmetric (S0) Lamb waves. Mode conversion is achieved when the propagation deviates from ΓX direction. Moreover, we observe abnormal refracted patterns with both positive and negative refraction occurring at the interface between a prism-shaped supercell and the surrounding plate. Furthermore, we propose a chiral pillar to efficiently couple the torsional resonance with an incident A0 Lamb wave.

Ultra-low and ultra-broad-band nonlinear acoustic metamaterials.

Linear acoustic metamaterials (LAMs) are widely used to manipulate sound; however, it is challenging to obtain bandgaps with a generalized width (ratio of the bandgap width to its start frequency) >1 through linear mechanisms. Here we adopt both theoretical and experimental approaches to describe the nonlinear chaotic mechanism in both one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) nonlinear acoustic metamaterials (NAMs). This mechanism enables NAMs to reduce wave transmissions by as much as 20-40 dB in an ultra-low and ultra-broad band that consists of bandgaps and chaotic bands. With subwavelength cells, the generalized width reaches 21 in a 1D NAM and it goes up to 39 in a 2D NAM, which overcomes the bandwidth limit for wave suppression in current LAMs. This work enables further progress in elucidating the dynamics of NAMs and opens new avenues in double-ultra acoustic manipulation.

Plate-mode waves in phononic crystal thin slabs: mode conversion.

We have computed the dispersion curves of plate-mode waves propagating in periodic composite structures composed of isotropic aluminum cylinders embedded in an isotropic nickel background. The phononic crystal has a square symmetry and the calculation is based on the plane-wave expansion method. Along GammaX or GammaM directions, shear-horizontal modes do not couple to the Lamb wave modes which are polarized in the sagittal plane. Whatever the direction of propagation in between GammaX and GammaM, shear-horizontal modes convert to Lamb waves and couple with the flexural and dilatational modes. This phenomenon is demonstrated both through the mode splitting in the lower-order symmetric band structure and through the calculation of all three components of the particle displacements. The phononic case is different from the pure isotropic plate case where shear-horizontal waves decouple from Lamb waves whatever the direction of propagation.