Letter abstract
Nature Materials 8, 931 - 934 (2009)
Published online: 25 October 2009 | doi:10.1038/nmat2561
Subject Categories: Optical, photonic and optoelectronic materials | Mechanical properties
Experimental demonstration of an acoustic magnifying hyperlens
Jensen Li1,3, Lee Fok1,3, Xiaobo Yin1,2, Guy Bartal1 & Xiang Zhang1,2
Acoustic metamaterials can manipulate sound waves in surprising ways, which include collimation, focusing, cloaking, sonic screening and extraordinary transmission1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. Recent theories suggested that imaging below the diffraction limit using passive elements can be realized by acoustic superlenses or magnifying hyperlenses15, 16. These could markedly enhance the capabilities in underwater sonar sensing, medical ultrasound imaging and non-destructive materials testing. However, these proposed approaches suffer narrow working frequency bands and significant resonance-induced loss, which hinders them from successful experimental realization. Here, we report the experimental demonstration of an acoustic hyperlens that magnifies subwavelength objects by gradually converting evanescent components into propagating waves. The fabricated acoustic hyperlens relies on straightforward cutoff-free propagation and achieves deep-subwavelength resolution with low loss over a broad frequency bandwidth.
- NSF Nano-scale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC), 3112 Etcheverry Hall, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
- Material Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
- These authors contributed equally to this work
Correspondence to: Xiang Zhang1,2 e-mail: xiang@berkeley.edu
