Boundary Reflections of Rolling Waves in Cubic Anisotropic Material

Abstract

Rolling waves have unconventional circular polarizations enabled by the equal-speed propagation of longitudinal and transverse waves in elastic solids. They can transport non-paraxial intrinsic (i.e. spin) mechanical angular momentum in the media. In this work, we analyze the rolling wave reflections and their effects on the non-paraxial spins in a cubic elastic half-space with an elastically supported boundary. Reflected waves from both normal and general oblique incidences are investigated. We show that, by adjusting the stiffness of the elastic boundary, we can precisely control the spin properties of the reflected waves, paving the way towards a broad category of spin manipulation techniques for bulk elastic waves.