Robust collimated beaming in 3D acoustic sonic crystals

TL;DR

This study demonstrates strong collimated acoustic beaming at audible frequencies in a 3D phononic crystal, combining theory, simulation, and experiments to reveal rich wave phenomena and potential applications in acoustic wave control.

Contribution

It introduces a 3D acoustic phononic crystal exhibiting collimated beaming at audible frequencies, validated through comprehensive theoretical, numerical, and experimental methods.

Findings

Collimation observed at 14.2 kHz and 18 kHz frequencies.

Numerical simulations confirm experimental results.

Different origins of collimation explained by isofrequency surfaces.

Abstract

We demonstrate strongly collimated beaming, at audible frequencies, in a three-dimensional acoustic phononic crystal where the wavelength is commensurate with the crystal elements; the crystal is a seemingly simple rectangular cuboid constructed from closely-spaced spheres, and yet demonstrates rich wave phenomena acting as a canonical three-dimensional metamaterial. We employ theory, numerical simulation and experiments to design and interpret this collimated beaming phenomenon and use a crystal consisting of a finite rectangular cuboid array of $4\times 10\times 10$ polymer spheres $1.38$~cm in diameter in air, arranged in a primitive cubic cell with the centre-to-centre spacing of the spheres, i.e. the pitch, as $1.5$~cm. Collimation effects are observed in the time domain for chirps with central frequencies at $14.2$~kHz and $18$~kHz, and we deployed a laser feedback interferometer or Self-Mixing Interferometer (SMI) -- a recently proposed technique to observe complex acoustic fields -- that enables experimental visualisation of the pressure field both within the crystal and outside of the crystal. Numerical exploration using a higher-order multi-scale finite element method designed for the rapid and detailed simulation of 3D wave physics further confirms these collimation effects and cross-validates with the experiments. Interpretation follows using High Frequency Homogenization and Bloch analysis whereby the different origin of the collimation at these two frequencies is revealed by markedly different isofrequency surfaces of the sonic crystal.