Acoustic Wavefront Shaping Using Ultrahigh Phase Resolution Metamaterial

Sourabh Dogra, Shubhi Bansal, Vikramjeet Singh, Sriram Subramanian, Manish K. Tiwari · Wiley · 2025

A transmissive acoustic metamaterial unit cell with a rotated bilateral symmetrical T-shaped structure provides high phase-delay resolution for sound focusing and steering.

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Plain English summary

The abstract discusses acoustic wavefront shaping using metamaterials, where controlling phase and amplitude at subwavelength scales can support applications like acoustic lensing, imaging, and noise control with ventilation. It proposes a new transmissive metamaterial unit cell: a subwavelength bilateral symmetrical T-shaped (BST) structure placed inside a rectangular waveguide. By rotating the BST structure along the z-axis, the unit cell is designed to give precise control of sound-wave phase delay with a stated resolution of up to π/36 radians at 8000 Hz. The work reports experiments, simulations, and theoretical modeling on the BST unit cell to explain the causes of the observed phase delays. A full-scale metamaterial made from 17×17 unit cells is fabricated using polyjet 3D printing and analyzed for sound focusing and steering, with results validated through experiments and numerical simulations.

Why this matters

A simpler transmissive unit cell design (BST structure in a rectangular waveguide) with high phase-resolution control is proposed to address limitations of prior acoustic metamaterials that use complex geometries and require multiple metamaterial bricks. The abstract demonstrates fabrication and experimental/numerical validation of a full-scale metamaterial array, but provides no evidence of commercialization, deployment, or manufacturability at product scale.

Key findings

  • A transmissive acoustic metamaterial unit cell based on a subwavelength BST structure in a rectangular waveguide is proposed.
  • Rotation of the BST structure along the z-axis enables precise phase-delay control with up to π/36 radian resolution at 8000 Hz.
  • Experiments, simulations, and theoretical modeling are used to define causes of observed phase delays.
  • A 17×17 unit-cell full-scale metamaterial is fabricated via polyjet 3D printing and tested for sound focusing and steering.
  • Results are validated through experiments and numerical simulations.

Limitations

The abstract does not specify bandwidth, performance across frequencies beyond 8000 Hz, robustness to fabrication tolerances, scalability beyond the demonstrated 17×17 array, or comparisons to specific prior designs beyond general statements.

Publication

Publisher
Wiley
Publication date
August 12, 2025
Research type
Paper
License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Method note: Summaries and ratings on this page are generated by AI from the abstract only. Read the original paper for full context. · Model: gpt-5.4-nano-2026-03-17