Active control of higher-order topological corner states in a piezoelectric elastic plate

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the active control of higher-order topological corner states in a piezoelectric elastic plate, enabling tunable and robust localized energy states for potential applications in wave control and energy harvesting.

Contribution

It introduces a method to actively tune topological corner states in a 2D elastic plate using piezoelectric circuits, enhancing practical control over topological wave phenomena.

Findings

Topological corner states can be flipped and tuned via negative capacitance circuits.

Corner states exhibit robustness against defects.

Frequency and position of corner states are actively tunable.

Abstract

Different from the traditional bulk-edge correspondence principle, the discovery of higher-order topological states has generated widespread interest. In a second-order, two-dimensional elastic wave topological insulator, the fluctuation information can be confined to the corners, with the state being topologically protected. In order to better apply topological corner states, this paper designs a two-dimensional elastic plate with adjustable topological corner states by means of piezoelectric control capability. By selectively connecting negative capacitance circuits to piezoelectric sheets on the honeycomb elastic plate, the energy band can be flipped. The topological corner states at the 2{\pi}/3 corner were observed at the boundary of two different topological phase structures in the finite lattice with finite element software. The strong robustness of the topological corner states was verified by setting up defective control groups at the corner. In addition, the topological corner states of this piezoelectric elastic plate are discussed accordingly in terms of their tunability in frequency and position. The piezoelectric elastic plate is expected to provide a reference for the design of elastic wave local control and energy harvesting devices due to its adjustable topological corner states, which facilitate the application of topological corner states in practice.