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Experimental observation of temporal pumping in electro-mechanical waveguides

We experimentally demonstrate temporal pumping of elastic waves in an electromechanical waveguide. An aluminum beam covered by an array of piezoelectric patches connected to shunt circuits with controllable resistances enables the spatial and temporal control of the beam's stiffness. The spatial modulation produces non-trivial edge states, while a smooth temporal variation of the modulation phase drives the transfer of edge states from one boundary of the waveguide to the other in a controllable manner. This characteristic behavior for a topological pump is here demonstrated for the first time in a continuous elastic waveguide. The framework presented herein opens new avenues for the manipulation and transport of information through elastic waves, with potential technological applications for digital delay lines and digitally controlled waveguides. Our study also explores higher dimensional topological physics using time as a synthetic dimension in electromechanical systems.