Topological negative refraction of surface acoustic waves in a Weyl phononic crystal

Reflection and refraction of waves occur at the interface between two different media. These two fundamental interfacial wave phenomena form the basis of fabricating various wave components, such as optical lenses. Classical refraction—now referred to as positive refraction—causes the transmitted wave to appear on the opposite side of the interface normal compared to the incident wave. By contrast, negative refraction results in the transmitted wave emerging on the same side of the interface normal. It has been observed in artificial materials1–5, following its theoretical prediction6, and has stimulated many applications including super-resolution imaging7. In general, reflection is inevitable during the refraction process, but this is often undesirable in designing wave functional devices. Here we report negative refraction of topological surface waves hosted by a Weyl phononic crystal—an acoustic analogue of the recently discovered Weyl semimetals8–12. The interfaces at which this topological negative refraction occurs are one-dimensional edges separating different facets of the crystal. By tailoring the surface terminations of the Weyl phononic crystal, constant-frequency contours of surface acoustic waves can be designed to produce negative refraction at certain interfaces, while positive refraction is realized at different interfaces within the same sample. In contrast to the more familiar behaviour of waves at interfaces, unwanted reflection can be prevented in our crystal, owing to the open nature of the constant-frequency contours, which is a hallmark of the topologically protected  surface states in Weyl crystals8–12.Sound waves in a specially designed crystal undergo ‘topologically protected’ negative refraction, whereby no reflection is allowed, at certain facets of the crystal and positive refraction at others.