Observation of water surface wave localization in a trough with periodic sidewalls

We demonstrate the localization of water surface waves and its evolution by introducing a defect into a trough with periodic sidewalls. Taking the advantage of water wave visualization, we observed a defect mode arising in the forbidden band and its formation process, that the water waves gradually accumulate at the defect, and accordingly, the energy gets smaller in the incidence part but larger in the exit part. After a certain time, when the accumulated energy gets large enough to produce a defect mode, we can obtain a steady state and an extraordinary transmission. It was also found that the transmission frequency linearly depends on the defect length with the negative slope and the localizations in different defects were also observed and analyzed. Due to the ubiquity of wave phenomena, the observation of water wave localization not only present a visual picture for the fundamental resonance concept, but also find applications in various fields, such as underwater acoustics, ultrasonics, electromagnetic waves, and optics.