Acoustic Focusing by Thermoacoustic Phase-Controlled Metamaterials
摘要
Thermoacoustic phase-controlled metamaterials enable unprecedented sound manipulation by creating temperature-induced refractive index gradients in air, eliminating impedance mismatch issues inherent in traditional multi-material lenses. This chapter presents three acoustic focusing (AF) lenses leveraging this principle. First, a self-healing broadband AF lens employing symmetric thermoacoustic Airy-beam arrays achieves remarkable bandwidths (3.5 kHz transmission and 4.8 kHz reflection) while maintaining focus integrity despite obstacles, enabled by overlapping beam energy; Second, a Bessel-like beam array creates an ultra-long focus (16.8λ) with 0.77 fractional bandwidth, adaptable for cylindrical sources; Third, a reflected configuration extends focusing to 2.0 m range with 0.29 fractional bandwidth. These AF systems uniquely combine thermal phase control with non-diffracting beam physics to enable robust performance unattainable with conventional lenses. The technology demonstrates significant potential for medical ultrasound through tissues, long-range directional applications, and broadband energy harvesting, establishing a new paradigm for acoustic wave manipulation without multi-material interfaces.