Ultra-Thin Metasurface-Based Absorber of Low-Frequency Sound With Bandwidth Optimization

We report, both theoretically and experimentally, a type of ultra-thin metasurface-based low-frequency sound absorber with bandwidth optimization. Such a metasurface unit consists of an ultrathin resonator (thickness∼1/90 wavelength) with a circular hole on the upper panel and four narrow slits inside a multiple-cavity structure. Eigenmode simulations of the unit show rich artificial Mie resonances, in which a type of monopolar Mie resonance mode can be obtained at 238.4 Hz. Based on the excitation of the monopolar mode, we can realize the near-perfect low-frequency sound absorption with the maximum absorption coefficient and fractional bandwidth of 0.97 and 12.9%, respectively, which mainly arises from the high thermal-viscous loss around the circular hole and four narrow slits of the unit. More interestingly, by combining 4 units with different diameters of the circular hole, we further enhance the fractional bandwidth of the compound unit to 18.7%. Our work provides a route to design ultra-thin broadband sound absorbers by artificial Mie resonances, showing great potential in practical applications of low-frequency noise control and architectural acoustics.