MechSE researchers have developed a novel acoustic superlens that focuses sound waves in much the same way that an optical superlens focuses light waves.
Written by By Kathrine L. Heine
MechSE researchers have developed a novel acoustic superlens that focuses sound waves in much the same way that an optical superlens focuses light waves. In the May 15 issue of Physical Review Letters, the researchers (graduate student Shu Zhang; her adviser, Assistant Professor Nicholas Fang; and Leilei Yin, a microscopist at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology) described their design and test results for an ultrasonic metamaterial lens that focuses 60kHz (~2cm wavelength) sound waves under water. The lens is made up of subwavelength elements and is therefore potentially more compact than phononic lenses that operate in the same frequency range.Made of metamaterial, the acoustic superlens technology, if improved, could lead to an acoustic cloaking device that might hide submarines and other objects from sonar.