Transverse wave band gaps and longitudinal wave band gaps in solid phononic crystals

Based on the properties of transverse (divergenceless) waves and longitudinal (irrotational) waves, we divided the transverse wave modes and longitudinal wave modes from the mixed eigen modes in solid phononic crystals. By investigating the transverse wave and longitudinal wave band structures at low frequency, we found that transverse bands and longitudinal bands exhibit different behaviors in solid systems including spherical scatterers. Phononic crystal with a large density ratio of solid spheres to the background can guarantee both the large longitudinal and large transverse band gap, but solid spheres with a small ratio of longitudinal wave velocity to transverse wave velocity can only help to enlarge the longitudinal band gap, and do not help to enlarge the transverse band gap.