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A holey-structured metamaterial for acoustic deep-subwavelength imaging

Nature Physics volume 7, pages 52–55 (2011)Cite this article

Abstract

For classical waves such as light or sound, diffraction sets a natural limit on how finely the details of an object can be recorded on its image. Recently, various optical superlenses based on the metamaterials concept have shown the possibility of overcoming the diffraction limit1,2,3,4,5,6,7. Similar two-dimensional (2D) acoustic hyperlens designs have also been explored8,9,10. Here we demonstrate a 3D holey-structured metamaterial that achieves acoustic imaging down to a feature size of λ/50. The evanescent field components of a subwavelength object are efficiently transmitted through the structure as a result of their strong coupling with Fabry–Pérot resonances inside the holey plate. This capability of acoustic imaging at a very deep-subwavelength scale may open the door for a broad range of applications, including medical ultrasonography, underwater sonar and ultrasonic non-destructive evaluation.

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Figure 1: Holey-structured metamaterial for deep-subwavelength acoustic imaging.
Figure 2: Dispersion relations.
Figure 3: Simulation and experimental images of two square dots.
Figure 4: Simulation and experimental imaging of deep-subwavelength-sized letter E.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been partially financially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science under projects MAT2008-06609-C02 and CSD2007-046-Nanolight.es. J.Z. and X.Z. acknowledge support from the US Office of Naval Research (grant number N00014-07-1-0626). We thank M. Nesterov for conducting the finite-element method simulations on wire arrays and holey plates presented in the Supplementary Information.

Author information

Author notes

  1. J. Zhu and J. Christensen: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (SINAM), 3112 Etcheverry Hall, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

    J. Zhu, X. Yin, L. Fok & X. Zhang

  2. Departamento de Fisica Teorica de la Materia Condensada, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, E-28049 Madrid, Spain

    J. Christensen, J. Jung & F. J. Garcia-Vidal

  3. Department of Physics and Nanotechnology, Aalborg University, Skjernvej 4A, DK-9220 Aalborg Øst, Denmark

    J. Jung

  4. Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Aragon (ICMA) and Departamento de Fisica de la Materia Condensada, CSIC-Universidad de Zaragoza, E-50009, Zaragoza, Spain

    L. Martin-Moreno

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  1. J. Zhu
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  5. X. Yin
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  8. F. J. Garcia-Vidal
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Contributions

F.J.G-V., J.J. and L.M-M. developed the idea of using holey films for deep-subwavelength imaging. J.C. and J.Z. devised the acoustic structure. J.Z., X.Y., L.F. and X.Z. designed and carried out the experiments. J.C. conducted the numerical simulations. J.Z., X.Z., L.M-M. and F.J.G-V. wrote the manuscript and J.C., J.J., X.Y. and L.F. participated in the revisions. F.J.G-V. and X.Z. conceived and led the project.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to X. Zhang or F. J. Garcia-Vidal.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Supplementary Information

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Zhu, J., Christensen, J., Jung, J. et al. A holey-structured metamaterial for acoustic deep-subwavelength imaging. Nature Phys 7, 52–55 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys1804

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