Amplitude-dependent phononic processes in a diatomic granular chain in the weakly nonlinear regime.

Nonlinear acoustic processes of second harmonic generation and nonlinear resonances in a diatomic granular chain (a granular phononic crystal) with static precompression are reported. The observed nonlinear self-action process which manifests itself as shifts in resonance frequencies of the chain leads to amplitude-dependent band edges: the properties of the phononic crystal change as a function of wave amplitude. Observed nonlinear effects at the band edges are exceptionally strong (self-induced attenuation and self-induced transparency) due to the peculiar frequency dependence of the attenuation in these frequency regions. The reported effects open the way for applications in wave tailoring by nonlinear phononic crystals, using amplitude-dependent processes, such as passive amplitude-dependent attenuators or amplifiers and various logical elements.