Tunable topological phononic crystals

Abstract

Topological insulators, first observed in electronic systems, have inspired many analogues in photonic and phononic crystals in which remarkable one-way propagation edge states are supported by topologically nontrivial bandgaps. Such bandgaps can be achieved by breaking the time-reversal symmetry to lift the degeneracy associated with Dirac cones at the corners of the Brillouin zone. Here, we report on our construction of a phononic crystal exhibiting a Dirac-like cone in the Brillouin zone center. We demonstrate that simultaneously breaking the time-reversal symmetry and altering the geometric size of the unit cell result in a topological transition that is verified by the Chern number calculation and edge mode analysis. The topology of the bandgap is tunable by varying both the velocity field and the geometric size; such tunability may dramatically enrich the design and use of acoustic topological insulators.