Nonreciprocal field transformation with active acoustic metasurfaces.

Field transformation, as an extension of the transformation optics, provides a unique means for nonreciprocal wave manipulation, while the experimental realization remains a substantial challenge as it requires stringent material parameters of the metamaterials, e.g., purely nonreciprocal bianisotropic parameters. Here, we develop and demonstrate a nonreciprocal field transformation in a two-dimensional acoustic system, using an active metasurface that can independently control all constitutive parameters and achieve purely nonreciprocal Willis coupling. The field-transforming metasurface enables tailor-made field distribution manipulation, achieving localized field amplification by a predetermined ratio. The metasurface demonstrates the self-adaptive capability to various excitation conditions and can be extended to other geometric shapes. The metasurface also achieves nonreciprocal wave propagation for internal and external excitations, demonstrating a one-way acoustic device. The nonreciprocal field transformation not only extends the framework of the transformation theory for nonreciprocal wave manipulation but also holds great potential in applications such as ultrasensitive sensors and nonreciprocal communication.

Acoustic Amplifying Diode Using Nonreciprocal Willis Coupling.

We propose a concept called acoustic amplifying diode combining signal isolation and amplification in a single device. The signal is exponentially amplified in one incident direction with no reflection and is perfectly absorbed in another. The reflection is eliminated from the device in both directions with impedance matching, preventing backscattering to the signal source. Here, we demonstrate the amplifying diode using an active metamaterial with nonreciprocal Willis coupling. We also discuss the situation with the presence of both reciprocal and nonreciprocal Willis couplings for more flexibility in implementation. The coexistence of both amplifier and perfect absorber in opposite incident directions extends the regime of sound isolation and further enables applications in sensing and communication, in which nonreciprocity can play an important role.

Digitally virtualized atoms for acoustic metamaterials.

By designing tailor-made resonance modes with structured atoms, metamaterials allow us to obtain constitutive parameters outside their limited range from natural materials. Nonetheless, tuning the constitutive parameters depends on our ability to modify the physical structure or external circuits attached to the metamaterials, posing a fundamental challenge to the range of tunability in many real-time applications. Here, we propose the concept of virtualized metamaterials on their signal response function to escape the boundary inherent in the physical structure of metamaterials. By replacing the resonating physical structure with a designer mathematical convolution kernel with a fast digital signal processing circuit, we demonstrate a decoupled control of the effective bulk modulus and mass density of acoustic metamaterials on-demand through a software-defined frequency dispersion. Providing freely software-reconfigurable amplitude, center frequency, bandwidth of frequency dispersion, our approach adds an additional dimension to constructing non-reciprocal, non-Hermitian, and topological systems with time-varying capability as potential applications.