Mechanical Properties of Laminate Materials: From Surface Waves to Bloch Oscillations

We propose hitherto unexplored and fully analytical insights into laminate elastic materials in a true condensed-matter-physics spirit. Pure mechanical surface waves that decay as evanescent waves from the interface are discussed, and we demonstrate how these designer Scholte waves are controlled by the geometry as opposed to the material alone. The linear surface wave dispersion is modulated by the crystal filling fraction such that the degree of confinement can be engineered without relying on narrow-band resonances but on effective stiffness moduli. In the same context, we provide a theoretical recipe for designing Bloch oscillations in classical plate structures and show how mechanical Bloch oscillations can be generated in arrays of solid plates when the modal wavelength is gradually reduced. The design recipe describes how Bloch oscillations in classical structures of arbitrary dimensions can be generated, and we demonstrate this numerically for structures with millimeter and centimeter dimensions in the kilohertz to megahertz range. Analytical predictions agree entirely with full wave simulations showing how elastodynamics can mimic quantum-mechanical condensed-matter phenomena.