2021/11/17 by Marco Miniaci, Miniaci, Marco, Florian Allein +3
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Acoustic Wave Phenomena Research #Applied Physics (physics.app-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Nonlinear Photonic Systems #Topological Materials and Phenomena
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2111.09021
openalex publication_date 2021/11/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The introduction of structural defects in otherwise periodic media is well known to grant exceptional space control and localization of waves in various physical fields, including elasticity. Despite the variety of designs proposed so far, most of the approaches derive from contextual modifications that do not translate into a design paradigm due to the lack of a general theory. Few exceptions include designs endowed with topological dispersion bands, which, however, require changes over substantial portions of the structure. To overcome these limitations, here we introduce a new rationale based on real-space topology to achieve localized modes in continuous elastic media. We theoretically predict and experimentally demonstrate the spectral flow of a localized mode across a bulk frequency gap by modulating a single structural parameter at any chosen location in the structure. The simplicity and generality of this approach opens new avenues in designing wave-based devices for energy localization and control.