Extremely thin reflective metasurface for low-frequency underwater acoustic waves: Sharp focusing, self-bending, and carpet cloaking

An extremely thin metasurface is proposed for manipulating underwater reflected waves. Each metasurface unit is only 1/61.7 of the target wavelength in thickness and comprises an air cavity capped with a thin vibration plate held in place by rubber spacers on steel supports. The unit-cell design is thin, simple, and can be adjusted to obtain a full 2π phase shift in water waves that are reflected from the metasurface. It also provides this phase shift for a broad frequency range of 20–800 Hz for incident waves. The effectiveness of the design and the resolution of the expected effect is demonstrated for sharp focusing, self-bending, and directional carpet cloaking, which are applications with great potential in energy harvesting, underwater communication, and submarine stealth and antidetection.