Acoustic Prism for Continuous Beam Steering Based on Piezoelectric Metamaterial

TL;DR

This paper presents an acoustic prism utilizing piezoelectric metamaterials that enables continuous beam steering through frequency tuning, leveraging local resonance effects to adjust wave direction without mechanical modifications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel acoustic beam steering method using piezoelectric metamaterials and frequency sweep, achieving continuous control without mechanical changes.

Findings

Wave phase velocity varies near local resonance.

Beam direction can be tuned between 2 to 16 degrees.

The system allows frequency-based beam steering without mechanical alterations.

Abstract

This paper investigates an acoustic prism for continuous acoustic beam steering by a simple frequency sweep. This idea takes advantages of acoustic wave velocity shifting in metamaterials in the vicinity of local resonance. We apply this concept into the piezoelectric metamaterial consisting of host medium and piezoelectric LC shunt. Theoretical modeling and FEM simulations are carried out. It is shown that the phase velocity of acoustic wave changes dramatically in the vicinity of local resonance. The directions of acoustic wave can be adjusted continuously between 2 to 16 degrees by a simple sweep of the excitation frequency. Such an electro-mechanical coupling system has a feature of adjusting local resonance without altering the mechanical part of the system.