Elastic wave transport in angularly selective valley topological metamaterials plate

The valley degree of freedom has attracted increasing attention in elastic wave systems owing to its energy extrema at valleys and great potential in energy transportation. This study investigated the transport of valley edge states by angularly selective excitation in elastic wave metamaterials plate and designed a bifunctional elastic wave device in the bent waveguide containing two different interfaces. The supercell analysis revealed that the valley edge states exhibit symmetrical and anti-symmetrical distributions at two different interfaces. The straight and bent waveguides containing a single interface are designed, and the selective transport of valley edge states is observed due to the symmetrical or anti-symmetrical distributions at the interfaces. The angularly selective excitation of valley edge states by external excitation is demonstrated at the straight and bent interfaces. Based on these transport characteristics of valley edge states and the valley conservation mechanism, a bifunctional elastic wave device composed of a bent waveguide containing both two interfaces is designed. It can realize both the functions of the diode and the backward diode. The designed elastic wave device has the advantages of being a single structure with bifunctions. This study of topological valley transport with angularly selective characteristic may also have practical applications such as energy harvesting and sensing.