Acoustic radiation pressure for nonreciprocal transmission and switch effects

Abstract

Systems capable of breaking wave transmission reciprocity have recently led to tremendous developments in wave physics. We report herein on a concept that enables one-way transmission of ultrasounds, an acoustic diode, by relying on the radiation pressure effect. This effect makes it possible to reconfigure a multilayer system by significantly deforming a water-air interface. Such a reconfiguration is then used to achieve an efficient acoustic transmission in a specified direction of propagation but not in the opposite, hence resulting in a highly nonreciprocal transmission. The corresponding concept is experimentally demonstrated using an aluminum-water-air-aluminum multilayer system, providing the means to overcome key limitations of current nonreciprocal acoustic devices. We also demonstrate that this diode functionality can even be extended to the design and operations of an acoustic switch, thus paving the way for new wave control possibilities, such as those based on acoustic transistors, phonon computing and amplitude-dependent filters.

Coupling and confinement of current in thermoacoustic phased arrays

“…Of particular note is that the elements only act as sources, not receivers: Coupled with the fact that the production mechanism involves no mechanical movement of the source, this transcends issues associated with speaker-microphone cross-talk (18). Elements of a thermoacoustic-phased array might be expected to be uncoupled, as the transduction is a one-way thermodynamic process (19). We find that this is not the case: The elements are intrinsically electrically coupled.…”

Broadband Nonreciprocal Acoustic Scattering Using a Loudspeaker with Asymmetric Feedback

“…One of the first systems proposed [1,2] was based on the use of a sonic crystal combined with a nonlinear medium. Many other systems were subsequently designed in the last decade [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13], and most of them rely on using nonlinear effects [3, 4, 6-8, 10, 11, 13] to break the (usually inherent) reciprocity of acoustic systems. More generally, there is currently a large effort in developing nonreciprocal acoustic systems, with numerous potential applications (see ref.…”

Nonreciprocal and even Willis couplings in periodic thermoacoustic amplifiers

“…Swapping source and receiver has long provided identical frequency responses due to reciprocity features, thus preventing the possible tuning of the transmission coefficient in opposite directions. In acoustics and elasticity, the reciprocity of wave propagation can be broken via three means: by using spatiotemporal dependent material properties [1], by combining nonlinear properties with an asymmetry [2][3][4], or by introducing an external bias [5,6]. Nonreciprocal devices and their applications have recently been reviewed in Ref.…”