Thermal tuning of band structures in a one-dimensional phononic crystal

Phononic crystals make the realization of complete acoustic band gaps possible, which suggests many applications such as vibration isolation, noise suppression, acoustic barriers, filters, wave guides, and transducers. In this paper, an analytic model, based on the transfer matrix method, is developed to study the band structures of bulk acoustic waves including SH-, P-, and SV-waves in a one-dimensional phononic crystal, which is formed by alternating strips of two different materials. The analysis is demonstrated by the phononic crystal of Ba0.7Sr0.3TiO3 (BST) and polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), whose elastic properties depend strongly on the temperature. The results show that some band gaps are very sensitive to the temperature. Depending on the wave mode, the center frequency of the first band gap may decrease over 25% and band gap width may decrease over 60% as the temperature increases from 30 C to 50 C. The transmission of acoustic waves in a finite phononic crystal is also studied through the coefficient of transmission power. These results are very useful for the design and optimization of thermal tuning of phononic crystals.