Propagation of Airy Beams with Ultrasonic Phased Array

Abstract

Airy beams have numerous imaging applications due to their ability to follow different propagation paths, including parabolic trajectories as well as being self-healing. As it travels it also does not spread out, retaining its intensity, and it exhibits resilience to obstacles. Ultrasound has had many imaging applications over the years but the use of ultrasonic transducers for the production of airy beams is still novel. The use of a phased array to do so is especially useful because by carefully arranging and modulating an array of signals, typically through phase and amplitude manipulation, it is possible to synthesize the spatial structure required to produce Airy beams. The interference of these mixed signals allows engineers and scientists to shape the beam’s energy distribution, creating the characteristic Airy waveform with a main lobe and trailing sidelobes.