arXiv subjects

Yangkai Liu

Publications and source records attributed to Yangkai Liu.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Topological Rainbow Trapping for Spatial-frequency Demultiplexing of Underwater Acoustic Signals

Efficient separation and localization of multifrequency acoustic waves are essential for underwater target recognition and acoustic energy harvesting. The underwater implementation of topological rainbow trapping remains challenging because of complex fluid-solid interactions and the difficulty of integrating long-range transport with frequency-selective localization in an open system. Here, we theoretically develop and experimentally demonstrate two underwater spatial-frequency demultiplexing mechanisms based on the acoustic analogues of the QVHE and QSHE. Both mechanisms employ SSAWs, whose fields are confined near a structured surface and decay evanescently into the surrounding water, enabling experiments without an enclosed waveguide. In the QVHE mechanism, a spatial gradient along a valley-Hall edge channel shifts the local edge-state dispersion, causing different frequency components to become localized at distinct positions and thereby realizing spectral and spatial demultiplexing. In the QSHE mechanism, one-dimensional topological edge states are coupled to frequency-selective zero-dimensional higher-order corner states. Multifrequency signals first propagate robustly along a common boundary and are then transferred to prescribed remote corners according to frequency, producing a transport-then-confinement process. This mechanism combines defect-tolerant edge transport, frequency-selective corner localization, and remote rainbow trapping. Numerical simulations and experiments verify the frequency-dependent localization and the persistence of the designed transport pathways in the presence of structural defects. The proposed open SSAW platform performs robust frequency demultiplexing at the physical layer, reducing reliance on digital signal processing and offering potential for underwater target recognition and frequency-selective acoustic energy harvesting.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2026

Elastic Trapped States at Dislocation Defects in Scaled Coupling and Hofstadter Models

Elastic topological dislocations provide a pathway for trapping elastic wave energy at internal defects, rather than being confined solely to external boundaries or corners, which are typically associated with topological insulators (TIs). However, two practical constraints persist. First, highly confined dislocation states based on conventional Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) dimerization usually require a large coupling contrast and a correspondingly enlarged bandgap, which may be challenging to realize. Second, some Hamiltonians with richer topological physics often contain complex hopping terms, synthetic gauge fields or nonlocal couplings, which substantially increase the geometric complexity of experimental samples. Here, dislocation-induced trapped states are demonstrated in both a scaled coupling (SC) model and a Hofstadter model (HM) within an elastic platform. In the SC model, the trapped mode is treated as a higher localized state in the continuum rather than an in-gap mode in the SSH model. Consequently, the SC-induced dislocation can trap an enhanced mode without the requirement of an enlarged bandgap. For the HM, Householder tridiagonalization is used to map the original tight-binding Hamiltonian with complex hopping terms onto a tridiagonal matrix with only positive-real-valued nearest-neighbour (NN) hopping terms. Truncation at a weak-hopping position preserves the topological phenomena and allows a dislocation defect to be constructed from the shortened aperiodic chain. The results establish a practical route for designing highly localized modes without relying solely on bandgap enlargement or complex couplings, which advance the topological physics of elastic wave systems and promise enhanced possibilities for elastic functional devices.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2026

Experimental Realization of Type-II Quadrupole Topological Insulator

The discovery of quadrupole topological insulators (QTIs) has spurred extensive research into higher-order topological phases. Recently proposed type-II QTIs exhibit unconventional topological behaviors with 1/2 edge polarization \operatorname{p}_x and zero edge polarization \operatorname{p}_y, due to the inequivalence between Wannier-band and edge-spectrum gap closures, yet their experimental realization remains challenging owing to the long-range and complex off-site hopping terms in their tight-binding model (TBM). Here, we circumvent this difficulty via an optimized Householder tridiagonalization (OHT) mapping that reduces the complex two-dimensional lattices to one-dimensional chains with only negative-real-valued nearest-neighbor hopping terms, greatly facilitating experimental sample fabrication. Using this strategy, we experimentally verify the type-II QTI phase, type-I QTI phase and trivial phase in elastic wave platforms via simple aperiodic plate-beam chain structures, where the plates reflect the on-site potential terms and beams correspond to the off-site hopping terms in the TBM. Our approach provides a versatile route for experimentally exploring more complex and richer topological phenomena based on TBM.

physics.app-ph↗