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.

In this work, we theoretically propose and experimentally demonstrate a kind of nonreflecting acoustic metamaterial fence that is perfectly impedance matched to air over a wide range of incident angles and a broad frequency band. The metamaterial fence is composed of an array of rigid cylinders with alternating layers of different cylinder diameters. It is designed by a spatially dispersive effective medium theory and experimentally demonstrated by airborne sound reflectance measurements. Our work provides a unique approach to design and realize rigid acoustic structures that can robustly prohibit reflection and reverberation. Such structures may have important applications in general acoustics.

Invisibility cloaks that can suppress wave scattering by objects have attracted a tremendous amount of interest in the past two decades. In comparison to prior methods that were severely limited by narrow bandwidths, here we present a practical strategy to suppress sound scattering across an ultra-broad spectrum by leveraging illusion metamaterials. Consisting of a collection of subwavelength tunnels with precisely crafted internal structures, this illusion metamaterial has the ability to guide acoustic waves around the obstacles and accurately recreate the incoming wavefront on the exit surface. Remarkably, two ultra-broadband illusionary effects are produced, disappearing space and time shift. Sound scatterings are removed at all frequencies below a limit determined by the tunnel width, as confirmed by full-wave simulations and acoustic experiments. Our strategy represents a universal approach to solve the key bottleneck of bandwidth limitation in the field of cloaking in transmission, and establishes a metamaterial platform that enables the long-desired ultra-broadband sound manipulation such as acoustic camouflage and reverberation control, opening up exciting new possibilities in practical applications.

Acoustic topological systems explore topological behaviors of phononic crystals. Currently, most of the experimentally demonstrated acoustic topological systems are for airborne acoustic waves and work at or below the kHz frequency range. Here, we report an underwater acoustic topological waveguide that works at the MHz frequency range. The 2D topological waveguide was formed at the interface of two hexagonal lattices with different pillar radii that were fabricated with metal additive manufacturing. We demonstrated the existence of edge stages both numerically and in underwater experiments. Our work has potential applications in underwater/biomedical sensing, energy transport, and acoustofluidics.

Real-time, low-cost, and wireless mechanical vibration monitoring is necessary for industrial applications to track the operation status of equipment, environmental applications to proactively predict natural disasters, as well as day-to-day applications such as vital sign monitoring. Despite this urgent need, existing solutions, such as laser vibrometers, commercial Wi-Fi devices, and cameras, lack wide practical deployment due to their limited sensitivity and functionality. Here we proposed a fully passive, metamaterial-based vibration processing device, fabricated prototypes working at different frequencies ranging from 5 Hz to 285 Hz, and verified that the device can improve the sensitivity of wireless vibration measurement methods by more than ten times when attached to vibrating surfaces. Additionally, the device realizes an analog real-time vibration filtering/labeling effect, and the device also provides a platform for surface editing, which adds more functionalities to the current non-contact sensing systems. Finally, the working frequency of the device is widely adjustable over orders of magnitudes, broadening its applicability to different applications, such as structural health diagnosis, disaster warning, and vital signal monitoring.

Underwater acoustic metamaterials are developed to reshape the acoustic radiation force, enabling remote, multi-degree-of-freedom manipulation of large objects in water.