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A theoretical and experimental study of the propagation of sound beams in- and behind three-dimensional sonic crystals at frequencies close to the band edges is presented. An efficient collimation of the beam behind the crystal is predicted and experimentally demonstrated. This effect could allow the design of sources of high spatial quality sound beams.

We report the theoretical and experimental demonstration of pattern formation in acoustics. The system is an acoustic resonator containing a viscous fluid. When the system is driven by an external periodic force, the ultrasonic field inside the cavity experiences different pattern-forming instabilities leading to the emergence of periodic structures. The system is also shown to possess bistable regimes, in which localized states of the ultrasonic field develop. The thermal nonlinearity in the viscous fluid, together with the far-from-equilibrium conditions, are is the responsible of the observed effects.

We propose and numerically demonstrate an efficient cleaning of spatial structure (spatial filtering) of sound beams by propagating them through at least twodimensional sonic crystals, i.e. through acoustic structures periodically modulated in longitudinal and in transversal direction with respect to the sound propagation direction. We show the spatial filtering in two configurations: with- and without the angular band-gap. We also show that besides the spatial filtering the beams can be additionally focalized at a particular distance behind the sonic crystal in both configurations.

We present the experimental demonstration of self-collimation (subdiffractive propagation) of an ultrasonic beam inside a three-dimensional sonic crystal. The crystal is formed by two crossed steel cylinders structures in a woodpile-like geometry disposed in water. Measurements of the 3D field distribution show that a narrow beam which diffractively spreads in the absence of the sonic crystal is strongly collimated in propagation inside the crystal, demonstrating the 3D self-collimation effect., Comment: 3 figures, submitted to Applied Physics Letters