Can Optical Methods of Fresnel Zone Plates and Prisms be Applied to Acoustics?
Krista Banks Marrero Mentor: Steve McCauley California State Polytechnic University, Pomona One of many optical devices invented by the French scientist Augustin Jean Fresnel is the Fresnel Zone Plate, a diffractive device, which has helped generate many practical tools used in optics. The Fresnel Zone Plate allows light waves to pass through, and due to diffraction, constructive and destructive interference occurs. This interference of waves magnifies the strength of the light at a specific focus point. Among other uses, the Fresnel Zone Plate has been utilized in space devices designed for NASA, holography, and tomographic imaging. The zone plate usually requires a monochromatic input of a specific wavelength. Generalizing the design to broadband radiation, (multiple wavelengths) should be possible providing applications in many areas of science. Refractive Fresnel methods have been previously applied to sound in the form of Deflex Acoustic Panels, which are refractive devices used f
