We have fabricated sonic crystals, based on the idea of localized resonant structures, that exhibit spectral gaps with a lattice constant two orders of magnitude smaller than the relevant wavelength. Disordered composites made from such localized resonant structures behave as a material with effective negative elastic constants and a total wave reflector within certain tunable sonic frequency ranges. A 2-centimeter slab of this composite material is shown to break the conventional mass-density law of sound transmission by one or more orders of magnitude at 400 hertz.

A review of the development of acoustic metamaterials, guided by their physical characteristics and novel functionalities.

Granular metal films (50–200,000 Å thick) were prepared by co-sputtering metals (Ni, Pt, Au) and insulators (SiO₂, Al₂O₃), where the volume fraction of metal, x, was varied from x = 1 to x = 0.05. The materials were characterized by electron micrography, electron and X-ray diffraction, and measurements of composition, density and electrical resistivity at electric fields ε up to 10⁶ V/cm and temperatures T in the range of 1.3 to 291 K. In the metallic regime (isolated insulator particles in a metal continuum) and in the transition regime (metal and insulator particles in a metal continuum) and in the transition regime (metal and insulator labyrinth structure) the conduction is due to percolation with a percolation threshold at x⋍0.5. Tunnelling measurements on superconductor-insulator-granular metal junctions reveals that the transition from the metallic regime to the dielectric regime (10–50 Å size isolated metal particles in an insulator continuum) is associated with the breaking up of a metal continuum into isolated metal particles. In the dielectric regime the temperature dependence of the low-field resistivity is given by ρL = ρo exp [2√(C/kT)], and the field dependence of the high-field, low-temperature resistivity is given by ρH = ρ∞ exp (εo/ε), where ρo, ρ∞, C, and εo are material constants. A simple theory based on the assumption that the ratio s/d (d-metal particle size and s-separation between particles) is a function only of composition yields expressions for ρ(ε, T) in excellent agreement with experiment. Furthermore, the theory predicts the experimental finding that the resistivity can be expressed in terms of a universal function of the reduced variables kT/C and ε/εo. The inter-relationship between all the important physical properties of granular metals and their structure is also discussed.

The attenuation of low-frequency sound has been a challenging task because the intrinsic dissipation of materials is inherently weak in this regime. Here we present a thin-film acoustic metamaterial, comprising an elastic membrane decorated with asymmetric rigid platelets that aims to totally absorb low-frequency airborne sound at selective resonance frequencies ranging from 100–1,000 Hz. Our samples can reach almost unity absorption at frequencies where the relevant sound wavelength in air is three orders of magnitude larger than the membrane thickness. At resonances, the flapping motion of the rigid platelets leads naturally to large elastic curvature energy density at their perimeter regions. As the flapping motions couple only minimally to the radiation modes, the overall energy density in the membrane can be two-to-three orders of magnitude larger than the incident wave energy density at low frequencies, forming in essence an open cavity.

We present the experimental realization and theoretical understanding of a membrane-type acoustic metamaterial with very simple construct, capable of breaking the mass density law of sound attenuation in the 100–1000 Hz regime by a significant margin ($\sim 200$ times). Owing to the membrane’s weak elastic moduli, there can be low-frequency oscillation patterns even in a small elastic film with fixed boundaries defined by a rigid grid. The vibrational eigenfrequencies can be tuned by placing a small mass at the center of the membrane sample. Near-total reflection is achieved at a frequency between two eigenmodes where the in-plane average of normal displacement is zero. By using finite element simulations, negative dynamic mass is explicitly demonstrated at frequencies around the total reflection frequency. Excellent agreement between theory and experiment is obtained.