Local resonances in phononic crystals and in random arrangements of pillars on a surface

The propagation of surface acoustic waves in two-dimensional phononic crystals of pillars on a surface is investigated experimentally for hexagonal and honeycomb lattice symmetries. A random array of pillars is also compared to the periodic phononic crystals. Taking into account that the geometrical and physical characteristics of the pillars are the same in all cases, it is shown that the locally resonant band gap in the low frequency range is almost independent of periodicity and resilient to randomness. In contrast, the Bragg band gap disappears with the random array. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.