Sound waves, moving from left to right, encounter an object surrounded by an “acoustic cloak” that causes the waves to re-form as if the object weren’t there.
Credit: New Journal of Physics

From the Labs

From the Labs: Nanotechnology

  • September/October 2008
  • By Katherine Bourzac

New publications, experiments and breakthroughs in nanotechnology--and what they mean.

   

Acoustic Cloaking
Design for meta­materials that deflect sound waves

Source: "Acoustic cloaking in two dimensions: a feasible approach"
Daniel Torrent and José Sánchez-Dehesa
New Journal of Physics
10: 63015-63025

Results: Designs have been drawn up for a material that could lead to the first acoustic cloaking device. Computer models suggest that alternating layers of two types of patterned, elastic rods, called sonic crystals, would direct sound waves around an object so that they re-formed on the other side with no distortion, as if the sound waves had never encountered the object.

 

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