Polarization rotator for shear elastic waves

Abstract

We designed and characterized a 3D printed acoustic shear wave polarization rotator (PR) based on the specific nature of the fused-deposition-modeling printing process. The principle of the PR is based on rotation of the polarization axis of a shear wave due to the gradual change in orientation of the axis of anisotropy along the direction of wave propagation of a printed layered structure. The component of the shear modulus parallel to the infilled lines within each layer is significantly higher than that in the perpendicular direction. As the PR was printing, a small angle between neighboring layers was introduced, resulting in a 3D helicoidal pattern of distribution of the axes of anisotropy. The polarization of the propagating shear wave follows this pattern leading to the rotation of the polarization axis by a desirable angle. The total rotation angle can be tuned by the number of printed layers. The fabricated 90° rotators demonstrate high performance that can be improved by changing the infill fraction settings.