Laser generation of narrow-band and directed ultrasound

An aluminium hemicylindrical sample has been irradiated with an array of laser lines, with each line acting as a source of acoustic waves. Detection of the generated ultrasonic waves was performed using both a wide-band stabilized Michelson interferometer and a 20 MHz piezoelectric transducer. Experimental and theoretical results are presented which reveal that the use of a spatially modulated laser source produces significant narrow-banding of the detected ultrasound, compared with a single point or single line source case. Additionally, for a given line spacing, ultrasound of a particular frequency can be directed. Owing to the nature of the acoustic signals generated by each individual array element, superposition of several signals does not result in any energy directivity similar to that encountered in phase electromagnetic array antennas. While time or frequency feature enhancement may be obtained in a desired direction, in most cases the far field energy directivity pattern is simply the incoherent sum of the energy directivity of each array element.