Second-order topological corner states in two-dimensional elastic wave metamaterials with nonsymmorphic symmetries

This paper investigates the higher-order topological behavior of elastic wave metamaterials composed of L-shaped pillars attached to a plate. In this system, the multi-dimensional topological transitions can be developed for physical transfer among the corner, edge, and bulk elastic wave modes by tuning the rotation angle of the L-shaped pillars. Different from the four degenerate corner states in the symmorphic system, these corner states in this metamaterial evolve into two doublets because of the lack of mirror symmetries. With the energy highly trapped at the corners, it thus can immediately realize elastic resonators/sensors with high-quality factors. Besides, the coupling effect between corner and edge states is analyzed in the multi-dimensional topological system. The edge–corner coupling effect could be applied to relevant fields, such as high-sensitive detection, elastic energy harvesting, and optomechanical sensing.