Steering Flexural Waves by Amplitude-Shift Elastic Metasurfaces

TL;DR

This paper introduces advanced elastic metasurfaces that manipulate flexural waves in thin plates by combining amplitude and phase modulation, enabling precise control for applications like wave focusing and beam shaping.

Contribution

It presents a general theory for wave steering using amplitude-shift elastic metasurfaces, expanding beyond phase-only control and demonstrating practical implementations.

Findings

Theoretical model for amplitude and phase control of elastic waves.

Numerical simulations and experiments confirm wave manipulation capabilities.

Potential for applications in signal processing and holography.

Abstract

As 2D materials with subwavelength structures, elastic metasurfaces show remarkable abilities to manipulate elastic waves at will through artificial boundary conditions. However, the application prospects of current metasurfaces may be restricted by their phase-only modulating boundaries. Herein, we present the next generation of elastic metasurfaces by additionally incorporating amplitude-shift modulation. A general theory for target wave fields steered by metasurfaces is proposed by modifying the Huygens-Fresnel principle. As examples, two amplitude-shift metasurfaces concerning flexural waves in thin plates are carried out: one is to transform a cylindrical wave into a Gaussian beam by elaborating both amplitude and phase shifts, and the other one is to focus the incidence by amplitude modulations only. These examples coincide well over theoretical calculations, numerical simulations and experimental tests. This work may underlie the design of metasurfaces with complete control over guided elastic waves, and may extend to more sophisticated applications, such as analog signal processing and holographic imaging.