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Digitally virtualized atoms for acoustic metamaterials
Choonlae Cho1,2, Xinhua Wen1, Namkyoo Park2
1Department of Physics, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong, China.
Nature Communications
|January 16, 2020
Summary
Virtualized metamaterials use digital signal processing to control acoustic properties, overcoming physical limitations. This software-defined approach enables on-demand tuning of bulk modulus and mass density for advanced material applications.
Area of Science:
- Acoustic metamaterials
- Solid-state physics
- Materials science
Background:
- Metamaterials offer unique properties by structuring atoms, enabling parameters beyond natural material limits.
- Tuning metamaterial properties typically requires physical modification or external circuits, limiting real-time applications.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce virtualized metamaterials that decouple constitutive parameters from physical structure.
- To demonstrate software-controlled tunability of acoustic metamaterial properties.
Main Methods:
- Replacing physical resonant structures with mathematical convolution kernels and digital signal processing circuits.
- Implementing software-defined frequency dispersion for dynamic control of material parameters.
Main Results:
- Achieved decoupled, on-demand control of effective bulk modulus and mass density in acoustic metamaterials.
- Demonstrated software-reconfigurable amplitude, center frequency, and bandwidth of frequency dispersion.
Conclusions:
- Virtualized metamaterials offer a new paradigm for designing advanced acoustic systems.
- This approach enables time-varying, non-reciprocal, non-Hermitian, and topological acoustic systems.
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