Phononic Crystals: Artificial Crystals for Sonic, Acoustic, and Elastic Waves

Phononic crystals are artificial periodic structures that can alter efficiently the flow of sound, acoustic waves, or elastic waves. They were introduced about twenty years ago and have gained increasing interest since then, both because of their amazing physical properties and because of their potential applications. The topic of phononic crystals stands as the cross-road of physics (condensed matter physics, wave propagation in inhomogeneous and periodic media) and engineering (acoustics, u…