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The recent development of microacoustic metagratings opens up promising possibilities for manipulating acoustic wavefronts passively, particularly in applications such as flat acoustic lenses and ultra-high frequency ultrasound imaging. The emergence of two-photon polymerization has made it feasible to precisely manufacture microscopic structures, as required when metagratings are scaled to MHz frequencies in airborne ultrasound. Nevertheless, the downsizing process presents another hurdle as the increased thermoviscous effects result in substantial losses that must be considered during the design phase. In this study, we propose two designs for microacoustic metagratings that refract a normally incident wave towards –35 ° at 2 MHz, consisting of single-body and two-body meta-atoms. The designs are created by employing shape optimization techniques that incorporate the linearized Navier–Stokes equations in every iteration starting from a neutral geometry. This ensures that the evolution of geometric key features responsible for anomalous refraction fully accounts for thermoviscous effects, as would be the case during evolution in nature where the full set of physics is always active. Subsequently, we experimentally evaluate the effectiveness of these metagratings by employing a capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer as the sound source and an optical microphone as the detector, covering a frequency range from 1.8 to 2.2 MHz. Our findings confirm the single-body geometry reported in the literature and show an alternative geometry for two-body design, showcasing the successful utilization of two-photon polymerization for manufacturing microscopic acoustic metamaterials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recently proposed bianisotropic acoustic metagratings offer promising opportunities for passive acoustic wavefront manipulation, which is of particular interest in flat acoustic lenses and ultrasound imaging at ultra‐high frequency ultrasound. Despite this fact, acoustic metagratings have never been scaled to MHz frequencies that are common in ultrasound imaging. One of the greatest challenges is the production of complex microscopic structures. Owing to two‐photon polymerization, a novel fabrication technique from the view of acoustic metamaterials, it is now possible to precisely manufacture sub‐wavelength structures in this frequency range. However, shrinking in size poses another challenge; the increasing thermoviscous effects lead to a drop in efficiency and a frequency downshift of the transmission peak and must therefore be taken into account in the design. In this work three microacoustic metagrating designs refracting a normally incident wave toward −35° at 2 MHz are proposed. In order to develop meta‐atoms insensitive to thermoviscous effects shape optimization techniques incorporating the linearized Navier–Stokes equations discretized with finite element method are used. The authors report for the first time microscopic acoustic metamaterials manufactured using two‐photon polymerization and, subsequently, experimentally verify their effectiveness using an optical microphone as a detector in a range from 1.8 to 2.2 MHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]