A scientific collaboration between researchers from the University of Valencia and the Polytechnic University of Valencia has led to the design, fabrication and first experimental demonstration of the first mantle of three-dimensional "acoustic invisibility" in the world.The work of these Valencia researchers is published on Friday in the journal Science, it has been chosen as one of the 'Editor's Choice', and made the cover of the latest issue of the journal Physical Review Letters.
Those responsible for this study belong to the unit Optoelectronic Materials and Devices (UMDO) Institute of Materials Science of the University of Valencia (ICMUV), where it was designed the cloak of invisibility, and wave phenomena Group (GFO) of the UPV, in whose laboratory has been developed a prototype and experimental measurements.
"Until now, research in this field had focused on two-dimensional systems and this is the first time it is done in three, thus laying the foundation for, in future, being able to apply these research results to practical cases and acoustically trying to hide real objects, "said Jose Sanchez-Dehesa, Group researcher at the UPV wave phenomena.
The acoustic invisibility cloak was designed in the Unit of Optoelectronic Materials and Devices-based ICMUV 60 plastic rings surrounding the cloaked object (a plastic sphere radius of four inches), using calculation tools themselves.Upon arriving sound waves pass through them as if it didn't exist, thanks to the acoustic properties of the mantle. "The position of the rings which allow you to cancel the scattered sound by the sphere is obtained using optimization techniques based on genetic algorithms," adds the researcher Lorenzo Sanchis (ICMUV).
To validate the performance of acoustic invisibility cloak, researchers GFO-UPV group produced several prototypes and conducted various tests in the anechoic chamber located in the center of the UPV Physical Technologies. 'These tests measure the sound field in three perpendicular planes to the field near the mantle to compare it with the measures taken in the free space, and found that the differences between the two cases were minimal, which meant that the field was gone, "says the investigator Victor Manuel García-Chocano (GFO-UPV).
According to Sanchez-Dehesa, this is a step "very promising" to achieve the goal of total acoustic invisibility, "where sounds at any frequency and direction would be canceled.The team now in focusing on extending their results to the acoustic invisibility of objects in the water.
Video on the investigation: http://mediaserver01.upv.es/UPRTV/TV/Areainformacion/invisibilidadacustica.mp4
And this other link, zip file with different animations on the device https://intercambio.upv.es/download.php?id=7d14be98d6a5e6f99db77b8429f78e83
Last update: 12 de april de 2013 09:22.
News release
