Coupled topological rainbow trapping of elastic waves in two-dimensional phononic crystals

Rainbow trapping, observed in elastic waves, has attracted considerable scientific interest owing to its potential applications in energy harvesting, buffering, and wavelength-division multiplexing devices. However, previous approaches have often necessitated complex geometric modifications to the scatterer, such as altering dimensions or shifting along diagonals to corners, limiting practical utility. Here, we realize the coupled topological edge states (CTESs) of elastic waves in a two-dimensional (2D) solid phononic crystal (PC) with inversion center changes. Changing the inversion center along the x or y directions by a specific distance can induce the topological phase transition. The topological edge states (TESs) arise at the interface by combining PCs with different topologies positioned adjacent to each other. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that TES exhibits topological robustness against defects. By introducing a gradient into the PC structure by altering the geometrical parameters of scatterers along the interface, the topological rainbow trapping of elastic waves is achieved. Finally, the CTES are generated by the interaction between TESs of different interfaces, which can lead to coupled topological rainbow trapping in phononic heterostructures with different displacement parameters along the multiple interface gradient. Our results pave the way for manipulating the symmetric and antisymmetric topological modes of elastic waves in topologically coupled waveguides, which offers potential applications in selective filtering and multiband waveguiding.