Broadband and high-numerical-aperture sharp focusing for waterborne sound with metagrating-based lens

Metalens with broadband and high-efficiency focusing functionality is desired in various underwater acoustic applications such as sonar and oceanography. Here we design and demonstrate a metagrating-based lens consisting of spatially sparse and wavelength-scale meta-atoms with optimized structures. With the help of grating diffraction analysis and intelligent optimization algorithm, the reflective metalens enables broadband and high-numerical-aperture focusing for waterborne sound over a 40 kHz-bandwidth for working frequency at 200 kHz. Full-wave numerical simulations unambiguously verify a sharp and high-efficiency focusing of sound wave intensity, with the full width at half maximum at the focal spot being smaller than 0.5 lambda and thus beating the Rayleigh-Abbe diffraction limit. Our work not only provides an intelligent design paradigm of high-performance metalens, but also presents a potential solution for the development of planar acoustic devices for high-resolution applications.

Automated summary

In this study, we design and demonstrate a metagrating-based lens that achieves broadband and high-numerical-aperture focusing for waterborne sound. Numerical simulations show that the lens has sharp and efficient sound wave focusing, surpassing the Rayleigh-Abbe diffraction limit.