Time Reversal Experiments Research Articles

Speckle Memory Effect in the Frequency Domain and Stability in Time-Reversal Experiments

When waves propagate through a complex medium like the turbulent atmosphere the wave field becomes incoherent and the wave intensity forms a complex speckle pattern. In this paper we study a speckle memory effect in the frequency domain and some of its consequences. This effect means that certain properties of the speckle pattern produced by wave transmission through a randomly scattering medium is preserved when shifting the frequency of the illumination. The speckle memory effect is characterized via a detailed novel analysis of the fourth-order moment of the random paraxial Green’s function at four different frequencies. We arrive at a precise characterization of the frequency memory effect and what governs the strength of the memory. As an application we quantify the statistical stability of time-reversal wave refocusing through a randomly scattering medium in the paraxial or beam regime. Time reversal refers to the situation when a transmitted wave field is recorded on a time-reversal mirror then time reversed and sent back into the complex medium. The re-emitted wave field then refocuses at the original source point. We compute the mean of the refocused wave and identify a novel quantitative description of its variance in terms of the radius of the time-reversal mirror, the size of its elements, the source bandwidth, and the statistics of the random medium fluctuations.

Time reversal of long coda waves: Experiments in the nonlinear regime.

A problem that arises when the time-reversal process is applied in a nonlinear regime is related to the generation of harmonics: conventional piezoelectric transducers cannot work properly at the frequency of the second harmonic. Then, the time-reversed wave cannot be completely emitted. Few works provide a solution to this issue. Thus, we study the alternative of performing a cross correlation of the wavefield. In a linear regime, this procedure is an accurate method for estimating real time-reversal properties. To study both procedures in the nonlinear regime in detail, we measure the wavefield of a wave that (1) traverses a multiple scattering medium, composed by a random set of parallel copper rods and (2) propagates inside a reverberant cavity, consisting of an aluminum case immersed in water. Cross correlation yields a virtually focused wavefield, where the focal width at the frequency of the first, second, and third harmonics can be measured. We compare these values with those obtained in a real time-reversal experiment. Results suggest that both time-reversal procedures are equivalent. In addition, we discuss the possibility of amplitude estimation at the focal spot and the limits of this work based on a theoretical model.

Interaction-driven breakdown of dynamical localization in a kicked quantum gas

Quantum interference can terminate energy growth in a continually kicked system, via a single-particle ergodicity-breaking mechanism known as dynamical localization. The effect of many-body interactions on dynamically localized states, while important to a fundamental understanding of quantum decoherence, has remained unexplored despite a quarter-century of experimental studies. We report the experimental realization of a tunably-interacting kicked quantum rotor ensemble using a Bose-Einstein condensate in a pulsed optical lattice. We observe signatures of a prethermal localized plateau, followed for interacting samples by interaction-induced anomalous diffusion with an exponent near one half. Echo-type time reversal experiments establish the role of interactions in destroying reversibility. These results quantitatively elucidate the dynamical transition to many-body quantum chaos, advance our understanding of quantum anomalous diffusion, and delimit some possibilities for protecting quantum information in interacting driven systems.

Development of software for performing acoustic time reversal with multiple inputs and outputs

At Brigham Young University, acoustic time reversal experiments are conducted in solids and fluid media. The experimental setup involves synchronized generation and acquisition hardware. The synchronized hardware allows for multi-channel generation, and in some cases, multi-channel acquisition of time reversal focusing. A LabVIEW application has been compiled to increase ease of use and repeatability for the students conducting experiments. Forward and backward steps of time reversal are conducted through this simple user interface. The software is also able to control a 2D positioning system that allows for the measurement of the spatial extent of a time reversal focus. Modifications to traditional time reversal processing, such as inverse filtering and one-bit processing, may be easily implemented in the software. This presentation describes the hardware and software that help to facilitate time reversal research. Ideas from this presentation may help others develop time reversal data acquisition systems.

Measuring Loschmidt echo via Floquet engineering in superconducting circuits

The Loschmidt echo is a useful diagnostic for the perfection of quantum time-reversal process and the sensitivity of quantum evolution to small perturbations. The main challenge for measuring the Loschmidt echo is the time reversal of a quantum evolution. In this work, we demonstrate the measurement of the Loschmidt echo in a superconducting 10-qubit system using Floquet engineering and discuss the imperfection of an initial Bell-state recovery arising from the next-nearest-neighbor (NNN) coupling present in the qubit device. Our results show that the Loschmidt echo is very sensitive to small perturbations during quantum-state evolution, in contrast to the quantities like qubit population that is often considered in the time-reversal experiment. These properties may be employed for the investigation of multiqubit system concerning many-body decoherence and entanglement, etc., especially when devices with reduced or vanishing NNN coupling are used.

CeNTREX: a new search for time-reversal symmetry violation in the 205Tl nucleus

The Cold molecule Nuclear Time-Reversal EXperiment (CeNTREX) is a new effort aiming for a significant increase in sensitivity over the best present upper bounds on the strength of hadronic time reversal (T) violating fundamental interactions. The experimental signature will be shifts in nuclear magnetic resonance frequencies of 205Tl in electrically-polarized thallium fluoride (TlF) molecules. Here we describe the motivation for studying these T-violating interactions and for using TlF to do so. To achieve higher sensitivity than earlier searches for T-violation in TlF, CeNTREX uses a cryogenic molecular beam source, optical state preparation and detection, and modern methods of coherent quantum state manipulation. Details of the measurement scheme and the current state of the apparatus are presented, with quantitative measurements of the TlF beam. Finally, the estimated sensitivity and methods to control systematic errors are discussed.

Shear Wave Elastography Based on Noise Correlation and Time Reversal

Shear wave elastography (SWE) relies on the generation and tracking of coherent shear waves to image the tissue's shear elasticity. Recent technological developments have allowed SWE to be implemented in commercial ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging systems, quickly becoming a new imaging modality in medicine and biology. However, coherent shear wave tracking sets a limitation to SWE because it either requires ultrafast frame rates (of up to 20 kHz), or alternatively, a phase-lock synchronization between shear wave-source and imaging device. Moreover, there are many applications where coherent shear wave tracking is not possible because scattered waves from tissue’s inhomogeneities, waves coming from muscular activity, heart beating or external vibrations interfere with the coherent shear wave. To overcome these limitations, several authors developed an alternative approach to extract the shear elasticity of tissues from a complex elastic wavefield. To control the wavefield, this approach relies on the analogy between time reversal and seismic noise cross-correlation. By cross-correlating the elastic field at different positions, which can be interpreted as a time reversal experiment performed in the computer, shear waves are virtually focused on any point of the imaging plane. Then, different independent methods can be used to image the shear elasticity, for example, tracking the coherent shear wave as it focuses, measuring the focus size or simply evaluating the amplitude at the focusing point. The main advantage of this approach is its compatibility with low imaging rates modalities, which has led to innovative developments and new challenges in the field of multi-modality elastography. The goal of this short review is to cover the major developments in wave-physics involving shear elasticity imaging using a complex elastic wavefield and its latest applications including slow imaging rate modalities and passive shear elasticity imaging based on physiological noise correlation.

Directional information extracted from time reversal scanning to image stress corrosion crack orientation

The time reversed elastic nonlinearity diagnostic (TREND) is a nondestructive inspection technique based on the principle of time reversal and used to scan the surface of a sample to identify and characterize cracks and other defects. TREND utilizes a series of individual time reversal experiments conducted on a grid of points in a region of interest to map out the spatial extent of surficial expressions of cracks and subsurface features that are less than a wavelength below the surface. The focal signatures from each of these experiments can be used to determine not only the location but also the orientation of the crack. We will discuss how this technique can be applied to a stainless steel sample with stress corrosion cracking (SCC) using stationary piezoelectric transducers broadcasting ultrasonic waves and a scanning laser vibrometer setup used to detect the three dimensional vibration of the sample surface. The orientation of the crack is critical to estimate how soon a crack might penetrate through the wall thickness of a structure. [This work was funded by the U.S. Dept. of Energy, Fuel Cycle R&D, Used Fuel Disposition (Storage) campaign and through a Nuclear Energy University Program Integrated Research Project (IRP-15-9318).]

Sub-Nyquist sampling boosts targeted light transport through opaque scattering media.

Optical time-reversal techniques are being actively developed to focus light through or inside opaque scattering media. When applied to biological tissue, these techniques promise to revolutionize biophotonics by enabling deep-tissue non-invasive optical imaging, optogenetics, optical tweezing, and phototherapy. In all previous optical time-reversal experiments, the scattered light field was well-sampled during wavefront measurement and wavefront reconstruction, following the Nyquist sampling criterion. Here, we overturn this conventional practice by demonstrating that even when the scattered field is under-sampled, light can still be focused through or inside scattering media. Even more surprisingly, we show both theoretically and experimentally that the focus achieved by under-sampling can be one order of magnitude brighter than that achieved under the well-sampling conditions used in previous works, where 3×3 to 5×5 pixels were used to sample one speckle grain on average. Moreover, sub-Nyquist sampling improves the signal-to-noise ratio and the collection efficiency of the scattered light. We anticipate that this newly explored under-sampling scheme will transform the understanding of optical time reversal and boost the performance of optical imaging, manipulation, and communication through opaque scattering media.

Direct numerical modeling of time-reversal acoustic subwavelength focusing

Focusing waves back to their original source position is possible both experimentally and numerically thanks to time reversal mirrors (TRM). For a TRM placed in the far field of the source, the focusing spot of the reversed wavefield is subject to the diffraction limit and cannot be smaller than half the minimum wavelength, even for a very small source. Yet, numerous time reversal experiments in resonating media have shown subwavelength focusing. In this work, we show that it is possible to model these subwavelength focusing observations with simple physics, only the 2-D standard acoustic wave equation, and with specific fine scale heterogeneity. Our work is based on the spectral element method to solve the wave equation and to model time reversal experiments. Such a method makes it possible to propagate very long time series in complex and strongly discontinuous media with high accuracy. The acoustic wave equations are solved at the fine scale in media with one or more split rings of size much smaller than the wavelength. Such split rings produce a Helmholtz resonance effect as well as propagation band-gaps. We show that, in such media, even with a single split ring resonator, subwavelength focusing down to 1/13th of the minimum wavelength can be observed.

Green's Function Retrieval with Absorbing Probes in Reverberating Cavities.

The cross-correlation of a diffuse wave field converges toward the difference between the anticausal and causal Green's functions between two points. This property has paved the way to passive imaging using ambient noise sources. In this Letter, we investigate Green's function retrieval in electromagnetism. Using a model based on the fluctuation dissipation theorem, we demonstrate theoretically that the cross-correlation function strongly depends on the absorption properties of the receivers. This is confirmed in measurements within a reverberation chamber. In contrast to measurements with noninvasive probes, we show that only the anticausal Green's function can be retrieved with a matched antenna. Finally, we interpret this result as an equivalent time-reversal experiment with an electromagnetic sink.

Focusing waves at arbitrary locations in a ray-chaotic enclosure using time-reversed synthetic sonas.

Time-reversal methods are widely used to achieve wave focusing in acoustics and electromagnetics. Past time-reversal experiments typically require that a transmitter be initially present at the target focusing point, which limits the application of this technique. In this paper, we propose a method to focus waves at an arbitrary location inside a complex enclosure using a numerically calculated wave excitation signal. We use a semiclassical ray algorithm to calculate the signal that would be received at a transceiver port resulting from the injection of a short pulse at the desired target location. The time-reversed version of this signal is then injected into the transceiver port, and an approximate reconstruction of the short pulse is created at the target. The quality of the pulse reconstruction is quantified in three different ways, and the values of these metrics are shown to be predicted by the statistics of the scattering parameter |S_{21}|^{2} between the transceiver and target points in the enclosure over the bandwidth of the pulse. We demonstrate the method experimentally using a flat microwave billiard, and we quantify the reconstruction quality as a function of enclosure loss, port coupling, and other considerations.

Nonlinear damage detection and localization via an innovative metamaterial-based sensor

In recent years, acoustic metamaterials have attracted increasing scientific interest for very diverse technological applications ranging from sound abatement to ultrasonic imaging, mainly due to their ability to act as band-stop filters. At the same time, the concept of chaotic cavities has been recently proposed as an efficient tool to enhance the quality of nonlinear signal analysis, particularly in the ultrasonic/acoustic case. The goal of the present work is to merge the two concepts to propose a metamaterial-based device that can be used as a natural and selective linear filter for the detection of signals resulting from the propagation of elastic waves in nonlinear solids, e.g., in the presence of damage, and as a detector for the damage itself in time reversal experiments. Numerical simulations and experimental measurements based on scanning laser Doppler vibrometer demonstrate the feasibility of the approach and the potential of the device in providing improved signal to noise ratios and enhanced focusing on scatterer locations.

Spin Physics at J-PARC

Spin-physics projects at J-PARC are explained by including future possibilities. J-PARC is the most-intense hadron-beam facility in the high-energy region above multi-GeV, and spin physics will be investigated by using secondary beams of kaons, pions, neutrinos, muons, and antiproton as well as the primary-beam proton. In particle physics, spin topics are on muon [Formula: see text], muon and neutron electric dipole moments, and time-reversal violation experiment in a kaon decay. Here, we focus more on hadron-spin physics as for future projects. For example, generalized parton distributions (GPDs) could be investigated by using pion and proton beams, whereas they are studied by the virtual Compton scattering at lepton facilities. The GPDs are key quantities for determining the three-dimensional picture of hadrons and for finding the origin of the nucleon spin including partonic orbital-angular-momentum contributions. In addition, polarized parton distributions and various hadron spin topics should be possible by using the high-momentum beamline. The strangeness contribution to the nucleon spin could be also investigated in principle with the neutrino beam with a near detector facility.

Reversibility of dynamics and multiple-quantum coherences.

In spin systems, the decay of the Loschmidt echo in the time-reversal experiment (evolution-perturbation-time-reversed evolution) is linked to the generation of multiple-quantum (MQ) coherences. Unlimited growth of the MQ coherences leads to irreversibility of dynamics. In some cases, one can expect that the deviation of the Loschmidt echo and the second moment of the MQ intensities distribution are linear in time. The criteria of such behavior, called weak irreversibility, are formulated. The proposed approach can be extended beyond spin systems, in order to analyze some general aspects of reversibility of many-body quantum dynamics.

Metamaterials-based sensor to detect and locate nonlinear elastic sources

In recent years, acoustic metamaterials have attracted increasing scientific interest for very diverse technological applications ranging from sound abatement to ultrasonic imaging, mainly due to their ability to act as band-stop filters. At the same time, the concept of chaotic cavities has been recently proposed as an efficient tool to enhance the quality of nonlinear signal analysis, particularly in the ultrasonic/acoustic case. The goal of the present paper is to merge the two concepts in order to propose a metamaterial-based device that can be used as a natural and selective linear filter for the detection of signals resulting from the propagation of elastic waves in nonlinear materials, e.g., in the presence of damage, and as a detector for the damage itself in time reversal experiments. Numerical simulations demonstrate the feasibility of the approach and the potential of the device in providing improved signal-to-noise ratios and enhanced focusing on the defect locations.

Sensitivity to small perturbations in systems of large quantum spins

We investigate the sensitivity of nonintegrable large-spin quantum lattices to small perturbations with a particular focus on the time reversal experiments known in statistical physics as ‘Loschmidt echoes’ and in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) as ‘magic echoes.’ Our numerical simulations of quantum spin- clusters indicate that there is a regime where Loschmidt echoes exhibit nearly exponential sensitivity to small perturbations with characteristic constant approximately equal to twice the value of the largest Lyapunov exponent of the corresponding classical spin clusters. The above theoretical results are verifiable by NMR experiments on solids containing large-spin nuclei.

Time reversal transfer: Exploring the robustness of time reversed acoustics in media with geometry perturbations.

In this letter, fundamentals of transferring a time reversal experiment between similar objects are discussed. The time reversal experiment consists of two steps: forward propagation, when a source excites the medium and a complex wave field is created, and back propagation, resulting in time reversal focusing. Here the procedure of performing the first step on one specimen and the second step on another is investigated. The theory of time reversal transfer is explained on an example of object shape variations. However, conclusions of the theoretical analysis are applicable universally. The feasibility of the proposed procedure is validated in experiments modeling conditions in practice.

Quantitative guided wave testing by applying the time reversal principle on dispersive waves in beams

A method for the localization and characterization of defects in waveguide-like structures is presented in this paper. In contrast to traditional ultrasound and guided wave techniques, a broadband signal is used to enforce strong dispersion of the flexural wave mode. Since dispersion is well compensated in a time reversal experiment we use a time reversal numerical simulation to identify the origin and the original shape of the flexural wave excited at a local non-uniformity due to mode conversion. Limitations of the time reversal process for broadband signals due to multimode and evanescent behavior of guided waves are discussed and eliminated using a Timoshenko beam model. The resulting novel process which uses both flexural and longitudinal wave information allows detection, localization and size estimation of several defects in a beam with only a single measurement. The method proposed is experimentally validated on rectangular solid beams and cylindrical hollow beams with notches of different sizes and positions. Up to three notches could be localized from one measurement, with a maximum error of 3% with respect to the propagation distance. The size was accurately predicted for notches as small as 0.5 mm depth or 8.3% of the cross section, using a generalized spring model of a crack.

Quantitative shear elasticity imaging from a complex elastic wavefield in soft solids with application to passive elastography.

In passive elastography, the complex physiological noise present in the human body is used to conduct an elastography experiment. In the present work, quantitative shear elasticity imaging from a complex elastic wavefield is demonstrated in soft solids. By correlating the elastic field at different positions, which can be interpreted as a time-reversal experiment, shear waves are virtually focused on any point of the imaging plane. According to the Rayleigh criterion, the focus size is directly related to the shear wave speed and thus to the shear elasticity. To locally retrieve a shear wave speed estimation, analytical and empirical expressions that relate the focus size with the shear wave speed and the frequency band used in the correlation computation are derived. The validity of such expressions is demonstrated numerically and experimentally on a tissue-mimicking phantom consisting of two different elastic layers. The obtained results were in complete agreement with a prior shear wave speed estimation demonstrating the potential of the technique to quantitative shear elasticity assessment using a complex elastic wavefield. Finally, an ultraslow experiment at an imaging rate of 10 Hz shows the technique to be compatible with slow imaging devices such as standard echographs or MRI scanners.