Perfect absorption of water waves by linear or nonlinear critical coupling

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates perfect water wave absorption using a subwavelength resonator tuned via geometry and nonlinear effects, achieving robust, simple, and deeply subwavelength absorption without moving parts.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method for perfect water wave absorption through critical coupling, controllable by geometry and nonlinear mechanisms, with a simple and robust design.

Findings

Achieved perfect absorption by tuning resonator geometry.

Controlled intrinsic damping via wave amplitude for nonlinear tuning.

Realized deeply subwavelength absorption ratio of approximately 18.

Abstract

We report on experiments of perfect absorption for surface gravity waves impinging a wall structured by a subwavelength resonator. By tuning the geometry of the resonator, a balance is achieved between the radiation damping and the intrinsic viscous damping, resulting in perfect absorption by critical coupling. Besides, it is shown that the resistance of the resonator, hence the intrinsic damping, can be controlled by the wave amplitude, which provides a way for perfect absorption tuned by nonlinear mechanisms. The perfect absorber that we propose, without moving parts or added material, is simple, robust and it presents a deeply subwavelength ratio wavelength/size $\simeq 18$.