The effect of electrical boundary conditions on the characteristics of surface acoustic waves propagating in potassium niobate

The study of the effect of a perfectly conducting plane placed at a certain distance from the surface of a potassium niobate crystal on the characteristics of the generalized Rayleigh and Gulyaev-Bleustein surface waves is continued. In addition, the effect of an infinitely thin conducting layer applied to the surface of the piezoelectric on the characteristics of these waves is analyzed. It is found that a variation in the conductance of this layer can produce a result that completely differs from the result obtained when a perfectly conducting plane is moved toward the surface, although the extreme states of these actions (electrically open and short-circuited surfaces) are identical. A possible physical explanation of this difference is proposed.     

Controlled excitation of resonance self-oscillations in one-dimensional distributed systems

On the basis of the method of equivalent linearization combined with the method of moments, laws of self-oscillation excitation are obtained that provide the modes with maximum intensity of resonance (or quasi-resonance) oscillations in one-dimensional systems with distributed parameters. A restriction of a general type is imposed on the law of excitation. In the particular case of an integral quadratic restriction, the law of excitation leads to the generation of purely harmonic self-oscillations. The use of an extended (multiplicatively stabilizing) control provides the uniqueness and stability of the quasi-optimal mode of self-oscillation.     

Reduction of the error of hydrophone calibration with respect to the field in a hydroacoustic tank by the reciprocity method

A hydrophone calibration procedure that considerably reduces the error caused by the acoustic field distortions in a hydroacoustic tank is proposed. The procedure is based on the definition of the reduced electric transfer impedances of transducers (i.e., the electric transfer impedances reduced to the spherical wave propagation law) and consists in measuring the electric transfer impedances for different distances between hydroacoustic transducers. The sensitivity of the hydrophone under calibration is calculated from the far-field values of the reduced electric transfer impedances. The latter are determined using a mathematical model of the hydrophone in the form of a system that contains a point sensing element and a finite number of point sources of acoustic signals (point reflectors). A method of determining the number and coordinates of the point reflectors from the analysis of the acoustic “images” of the hydrophone’s reflecting surface is proposed. The measuring technique, the algorithms of mathematical processing, and the results of experimental studies are considered. A comparative analysis of the results of the hydrophone calibration with respect to the field by the reciprocity method is performed for the cases of using the conventional technique and the proposed method.     

Extraordinary ray refraction in a large pitch helical medium

The phenomenon of extraordinary ray refraction in a helical liquid crystal with large (compared to the light wavelength) pitch has been studied by theoretical and experimental methods. At a sufficiently large angle of incidence relative to the pitch axis, the extraordinary ray exhibits reflection (reversal) from a certain layer of the medium. The ordinary ray, for which the system is optically isotropic, exhibits no such reflection. The experimental dependences of the transmitted and reflected (reversed) rays are described using the geometrical optics approximation taking into account the optical losses for scattering inside the liquid crystal.