Logan Hargrove and nonlinear acoustics

Abstract

Logan Hargrove became involved in nonlinear acoustics as a master’s student at Oklahoma State University under George Thurston, research that led to the 1957 JASA paper “Nonlinear Properties of Circular Orifices.” His involvement continued as a doctoral student under Egon Hiedemann at Michigan State University, where he published the 1960 JASA letter “Fourier Series for the Finite Amplitude Sound Waveform in a Dissipationless Medium.” The letter was part of his research on the use of optical methods to characterize sound fields, which culminated in Hargrove and Achyuthan’s 1965 Physical Acoustics series chapter “Use of Light Diffraction in Measuring the Parameter of Nonlinearity of Liquids and the Photoelastic Constants of Solids.” Following his subsequent employment at Bell Laboratories, where he worked primarily in optics and reported the first demonstration of a mode-locked laser, Logan became a scientific officer at the Office of Naval Research and began funding basic research in nonlinear acoustics. This presentation provides an overview of the research projects and graduate students in nonlinear acoustics that were funded by Logan at UT Austin for nearly three decades. Part of Logan’s legacy is that many students he funded perform research in nonlinear acoustics to this day.