Focusing and subwavelength imaging of surface acoustic waves in a solid-air phononic crystal

Focusing and subwavelength imaging of surface acoustic waves (SAWs) through a phononic crystal flat lens are discussed in the presented work. Experimental and numerical wave fields are obtained in the time-domain by an optical technique and by numerical simulations. Spatial distributions of the acoustic field are accessed using a temporal Fourier transform. The revealed focusing of the elastic waves in the first band of the crystal is governed by the concave equifrequency contour of the leaky-Rayleigh wave. The spatial distributions of the experimental and numerical acoustic fields also unfold subwavelength imaging of SAWs. Numerical simulations show that the imaging quality can be improved by embedding the flat lens into a medium with higher wave velocity. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4747931]