Bessel beam ultrasonic transducer: Fabrication method and experimental results

Abstract

We report experimental results from a first‐of‐a‐kind ultrasonic transducer that generates a beam with a Bessel function profile. Using a technique of nonuniform poling, an axially symmetric Bessel function pattern is ‘‘polarized into’’ a piezoelectric ceramic element. The resulting circular‐disk transducer has the usual full‐plating electrode configuration, but produces an ultrasonic beam with a radial displacement profile approximating that of the Bessel function J₀ (r), both in amplitude and in phase. The radiation field of a 1‐in.‐diam, 2.25 MHz Bessel transducer mapped out with a point probe shows good agreement with calculated results using a Gauss‐Hermite model. Bessel transducers are of particular interest in attempts to achieve ‘‘diffractionless’’ beams.