Observation of topological valley transport of elastic waves in bilayer phononic crystal slabs

In this Letter, we propose a unique bilayer design of phononic crystal slabs that are constructed by two layers of snowflake phononic crystal plates connected by a honeycomb array of cylinders. By tuning orientations of snowflake-shaped holes in both layers, we achieve two kinds of valley-projected topological elastic insulators distinguished by conventional and layer-polarized topological valley Hall phases. Then, between different conventional and layer-polarized topological valley Hall phases, two kinds of edge modes, layer-mixed and layer-polarized edge modes, are obtained and explored. In finite-size samples, the interesting topological transport properties, which the elastic wave can propagate alternatively between both layers and only in a single layer, are realized by exciting layer-mixed and layer-polarized edge states. In addition, we design an interlayer converter to realize conversion of the elastic wave propagation between both layers. Our research promotes the development of topological elastic insulators and provides a route for various practical applications.