Dispersion relations of surface waves in semi-infinite periodic scattering arrays

Abstract

Lord Rayleigh was the first in proposing the existence of surface waves in elastic systems at the end of the 19th century. Since then, people have observed elastic surface waves in very different contexts: from the huge wavelengthed seismic movements to the ultrasonic waves traveling along electronic devices. The aim of this work is to study the propagation of elastic surface waves through structures with periodically distributed inhomogeneities with cylinder symmetry. The theoretical study is based on variational tools developed by the authors. The periodicity led us to characterize the system by a band structure. In principle, those results can be used to design devices to forbid the transmission or to enhance and drive the propagation of elastic surface waves of selected frequencies. [Work supported by CICyT of Spain.]