Existence of surface acoustic waves in one-dimensional piezoelectric phononic crystals of general anisotropy

Abstract

The paper is concerned with the surface acoustic waves propagating in half-infinite one-dimensional piezoelectric phononic crystals of general anisotropy. The phononic crystal is formed of periodically repeated perfectly bonded layers, and its exterior boundary is one of the layer boundaries. The surface waves occurring in the so-called full stop bands are considered. It appears that the number of surface waves existing within a full stop band for a given layered structure is interrelated with their number in the same stop band for the phononic crystal different from the given one only due to the reversed ordering of layers within a period. A series of statements is proved on the maximum possible number of surface waves per full stop band for both these structures in total, i.e., embracing surface-wave occurrences in either one or the other structure. The analysis is performed for the electrically closed, electrically open, and electrically free types of boundary conditions on the mechanically free crystal surface, in which cases it admits a correspondingly different number of surface waves. A subsidiary instance of mechanically clamped surface is addressed as well. It is observed that the piezoelectric coupling can create new surface waves which disappear when piezoelectric coefficients turn to zero. Besides the general case of arbitrary anisotropy, we also consider two specific situations where the crystallographic symmetry allows the existence of sagittally polarized piezoactive surface waves and of shear horizontally polarized piezoactive surface waves. Numerical examples of surface-wave branches under various boundary conditions are provided.