Far-field acoustic subwavelength imaging and edge detection based on spatial filtering and wave vector conversion

The resolution of acoustic imaging suffers from diffraction limit due to the loss of evanescent field that carries subwavelength information. Most of the current methods for overcoming the diffraction limit in acoustics still operate in the near-field of the object. Here we demonstrate the design and experimental realization of an acoustic far-field subwavelength imaging system. Our system is based on wave vector filtering and conversion with a transmitter at the near-field and a spatially symmetrical receiver at the far-field. By tuning geometric parameters of the transmitting/receiving pair, different spatial frequency bands can be separated and projected to the far-field. Furthermore, far-field imaging and edge detection of subwavelength objects are experimentally demonstrated. The proposed system brings new possibilities for far-field subwavelength wave manipulation, which can be further applied to medical imaging, nondestructive testing, and acoustic communication.United States. Office of Naval Research. Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (Grant No. N00014-13-1-0631

Numerical Study of a near-Zero-Index Acoustic Metamaterial

This Letter studies a two-dimensional, membrane-based acoustic metamaterial with a near-zero refractive index. It yields a frequency-dependent effective density that is near-zero at a narrow frequency band centered around its first resonant frequency. This effective density results in its near-zero refractive index. Numerical simulations are shown which demonstrate that the phase in this metamaterial undergoes small changes, and the metamaterial functions as an angular filter such that only a wave with a near-zero incident angle can transmit. Its ability to tailor acoustic phase pattern is also discussed in this Letter

A broadband polygonal cloak for acoustic wave designed with linear coordinate transformation

Previous acoustic cloaks designed with transformation acoustics always involve inhomogeneous material. In this paper, a design of acoustic polygonal cloak is proposed using linear polygonal transformation method. The designed acoustic polygonal cloak has homogeneous and anisotropic parameters, which is much easier to realize in practice. Furthermore, a possible acoustic metamaterial structure to realize the cloak is proposed. Simulation results on the real structure show that the metamaterial acoustic cloak is effective to reduce the scattering of the object.National Natural Science Foundation (China) (Grants 61322501, 61574127, and 61275183)Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (China) (NCET-12-0489)Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of ChinaZhejiang University. Innovation Joint Research Center for Cyber-Physical-Society SystemChina Postdoctoral Science FoundationUnited States. Office of Naval Research. Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (Grant 2015M581930)Top-Notch Young Talents Program of Chin

Tunable Light–Matter Interaction and the Role of Hyperbolicity in Graphene–hBN System

Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) is a natural hyperbolic material, which can also accommodate highly dispersive surface phonon-polariton modes. In this paper, we examine theoretically the mid-infrared optical properties of graphene–hBN heterostructures derived from their coupled plasmon–phonon modes. We find that the graphene plasmon couples differently with the phonons of the two Reststrahlen bands, owing to their different hyperbolicity. This also leads to distinctively different interaction between an external quantum emitter and the plasmon–phonon modes in the two bands, leading to substantial modification of its spectrum. The coupling to graphene plasmons allows for additional gate tunability in the Purcell factor and narrow dips in its emission spectra.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (CMMI-1120724)United States. Office of Naval Research. Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (FA9550-12-1-0488

Nonlocal dynamics of dissipative phononic fluids

We describe the nonlocal effective properties of a two-dimensional dissipative phononic crystal made by periodic arrays of rigid and motionless cylinders embedded in a viscothermal fluid such as air. The description is based on a nonlocal theory of sound propagation in stationary random fluid/rigid media that was proposed by Lafarge and Nemati [Wave Motion 50, 1016 (2013)WAMOD90165-212510.1016/j.wavemoti.2013.04.007]. This scheme arises from a deep analogy with electromagnetism and a set of physics-based postulates including, particularly, the action-response procedures, whereby the effective density and bulk modulus are determined. Here, we revisit this approach, and clarify further its founding physical principles through presenting it in a unified formulation together with the two-scale asymptotic homogenization theory that is interpreted as the local limit. Strong evidence is provided to show that the validity of the principles and postulates within the nonlocal theory extends to high-frequency bands, well beyond the long-wavelength regime. In particular, we demonstrate that up to the third Brillouin zone including the Bragg scattering, the complex and dispersive phase velocity of the least-attenuated wave in the phononic crystal which is generated by our nonlocal scheme agrees exactly with that reproduced by a direct approach based on the Bloch theorem and multiple scattering method. In high frequencies, the effective wave and its associated parameters are analyzed by treating the phononic crystal as a random medium.United States. Office of Naval Research (N00014-13-1-0631

Polytope Sector-Based Synthesis and Analysis of Microstructural Architectures With Tunable Thermal Conductivity and Expansion

The aim of this paper is to (1) introduce an approach, called polytope sector-based synthesis (PSS), for synthesizing 2D or 3D microstructural architectures that exhibit a desired bulk-property directionality (e.g., isotropic, cubic, orthotropic, etc.), and (2) provide general analytical methods that can be used to rapidly optimize the geometric parameters of these architectures such that they achieve a desired combination of bulk thermal conductivity and thermal expansion properties. Although the methods introduced can be applied to general beam-based microstructural architectures, we demonstrate their utility in the context of an architecture that can be tuned to achieve a large range of extreme thermal expansion coefficients—positive, zero, and negative. The material-property-combination region that can be achieved by this architecture is determined within an Ashby-material-property plot of thermal expansion versus thermal conductivity using the analytical methods introduced. These methods are verified using finite-element analysis (FEA) and both 2D and 3D versions of the design have been fabricated using projection microstereolithography.United States. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Materials with Controlled Microstructural Architectures Progra

Infrared Topological Plasmons in Graphene

We propose a two-dimensional plasmonic platform—periodically patterned monolayer graphene—which hosts topological one-way edge states operable up to infrared frequencies. We classify the band topology of this plasmonic system under time-reversal-symmetry breaking induced by a static magnetic field. At finite doping, the system supports topologically nontrivial band gaps with mid-gap frequencies up to tens of terahertz. By the bulk-edge correspondence, these band gaps host topologically protected one-way edge plasmons, which are immune to backscattering from structural defects and subject only to intrinsic material and radiation loss. Our findings reveal a promising approach to engineer topologically robust chiral plasmonic devices and demonstrate a realistic example of high-frequency topological edge states.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant No. CMMI-1120724)United States. Office of Naval Research. Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (Award No. FA9550-12-1-0488)Villum FoundationDanish Council for Independent Research (Grant No. DFF – 6108-00667)United States. Army Research Office. Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (Contract No. W911NF-13-D-0001)China. Ministry of Science and Technology. National Key Research and Development Program (Grant No. 2016YFA0302400)China. Ministry of Science and Technology. National Key Research and Development Program (Grant No. 2016YFA0302400)China. National Thousand-Young-Talents Progra

Optical Curtain Effect: Extraordinary Optical Transmission Enhanced by Antireflection

In this paper, we employ an antireflective coating which comprises inverted π-shaped metallic grooves to manipulate the behaviour of a transverse-magnetic (TM)-polarised plane wave transmitted through a periodic nanoslit array. At normal incidence, such scheme cannot only retain the optical curtain effect in the output region but also generate the extraordinary transmission of light through the nanoslits with the total transmission efficiency as high as 90 %. Besides, we show that the spatially invariant field distribution in the output region as well as the field distribution of resonant modes around the inverted π-shaped grooves can be reproduced immaculately when the system is excited by an array of point sources beneath the inverted π-shaped grooves. Furthermore, we investigate the influence of centre groove and side-corners of the inverted π-shaped grooves on suppressing the reflection of light, respectively. Based on our work, it shows promising potential in applications of enhancing the extraction efficiency as well as controlling the beaming pattern of light emitting diodes.National Natural Science Foundation (China) (Grants 11204205, 60976018, 61274056 and 60990320)Natural Foundation of Shanxi (Grant 2012011020-4)Taiyuan University of Technology (Special Foundation and Starting Research Fund

Lightweight Mechanical Metamaterials with Tunable Negative Thermal Expansion

Ice floating on water is a great manifestation of negative thermal expansion (NTE) in nature. The limited examples of natural materials possessing NTE have stimulated research on engineered structures. Previous studies on NTE structures were mostly focused on theoretical design with limited experimental demonstration in two-dimensional planar geometries. In this work, aided with multimaterial projection microstereolithography, we experimentally fabricate lightweight multimaterial lattices that exhibit significant negative thermal expansion in three directions and over a temperature range of 170 degrees. Such NTE is induced by the structural interaction of material components with distinct thermal expansion coefficients. The NTE can be tuned over a large range by varying the thermal expansion coefficient difference between constituent beams and geometrical arrangements. Our experimental results match qualitatively with a simple scaling law and quantitatively with computational models.United States. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Materials with Controlled Microstructural Architectures ProgramLawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Award DE-AC52-07NA27344 (LLNL-JRNL-697779))SUTD-MIT Postdoctoral Progra