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The propagation of acoustic and elastic waves in periodic composite materials, the acoustic and elastic analogue of photonic crystals, has been a growing interest in the recent years. Interest has focussed on theoretical and experimental studies of spectral gaps due to the periodicity of the underlying structure. For sound, these are often referred to as phononic band gaps, by analogy with photonic band gaps for light and electronic band gaps for metals. The motivation for these studies is in part driven by potential applications in such examples as sound filters, transducer design and acoustic mirrors. The fundamental scientific interest lies in the rich physics of acoustic and elastic systems, where scattering contrast is affected by both density and velocity differences, and the waves can have mixed longitudinal and transverse vector character, leading to the possibility of novel propagation phenomena. The features of phononic band gap materials may also make them interesting candidates for studies in wave localization.
"Acoustic
Band Gap Materials"
J.H. Page, A.L. Goertzen, Suxia Yang, Zhengyou Liu, C.T. Chan and Ping Sheng,
NATO ASI on Photonic Crystals and Light Localization, Crete, June 19-30, 2000 (preprint).
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Elastic wave scattering by periodic structures of spherical objects: Theory
and experiment
Zhengyou Liu, C.T. Chan, Ping Sheng, A.L. Goertzen and J.H. Page, Phys. Rev. B, 62,4, 2000.