ACOUSTIC INTERFEROMETERS BASED ON TWO-DIMENSIONAL ARRAYS OF RIGID CYLINDERS IN AIR

This work presents a comprehensive study of acoustic interferometers based on sonic crystals, such as the one reported by Cervera et al. in Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 023902 (2002). This kind of interferometers consist of a slab of rigid cylinders in air put in a periodic configuration. Their performance as a function of thickness and symmetry configuration (square and hexagonal) is analyzed by our setup, which obtains the reflectance spectra using the standing wave ratio technique. Experimental observations are fairly well simulated by a self-consistent wave theory that incorporates all orders of multiple scattering. An homogenization procedure shows that sound propagation inside the hexagonal-based crystals is isotropic while it is biaxial inside the square-based crystals. A method able to extract the acoustic band structure from the reflectance spectra of the finite crystals under study is also described. Finally, the robustness of the interference effects is also studied as a function of positional disorder inside the unit cells in the lattice.