Ultrasonic imaging beyond diffraction limit using conventional transducers with conical baffles

Conventional ultrasonic imaging systems suffer from poor resolution imposed by the diffraction limit. The authors have recently demonstrated the use of holey-structured metamaterials (HSMs) to enable resolution beyond the diffraction limit in the ultrasonic regime. However, imaging with HSM requires acquisition of data at fine spatial intervals. Although the use of laser Doppler vibrometers (LDV) as a receiver can be a solution for this as reported in earlier experimental studies, they are highly sensitive to ambient disturbances, suffer from low signal-to-noise ratio and are also expensive, hampering a wider practical implementation. This Letter presents experimental results using hollow cone attachments coupled with conventional ultrasonic transducers for achieving subwavelength resolution imaging at a relatively higher speed and minimal cost. The proposed methodology can be implemented easily for practical inspections and has great potential for commercialisation.