Review of acoustic lens developments

Abstract

Use of acoustic lenses in underwater applications spans many decades. Lord Rayleigh describes an acoustic lens as early as 1879. Some well-documented experimental lenses were developed by Williams in the 1940's at General Electric. This work with lenses and reflectors led to the development of the U. S. Navy's first high-frequency (100-kHz) sonar, the AN/UQS-1. Since that time many investigators have worked in the area developing liquid, solid, and gas lenses. The complexity of these lenses range from the simple single-element lens to a recently developed three-group seven-element lens. These lens developments will be reviewed and the current state of lens technology will be discussed.