Thermally induced ultrasonic emission from porous silicon

The most common mechanism1 for generating ultrasound in air is via a piezoelectric transducer, whereby an electrical signal is converted directly into a mechanical vibration. But the acoustic pressure so generated is usually limited to less than 10 Pa, the frequency bandwidth of most piezoelectric ceramics is narrow, and it is difficult to assemble such transducers into a fine-scale phase array with no crosstalk2,3. An alternative strategy using micromachined electrostatic diaphragms is showing some promise4,5, but the high voltages required and the mechanical weakness of the diaphragms may prove problematic for applications. Here we show that simple heat conduction from porous silicon to air results in high-intensity ultrasound without the need for any mechanical vibrational system. Our non-optimized device generates an acoustic pressure of 0.1 Pa at a power consumption of 1 W cm−2, and exhibits a flat frequency response up to at least 100 kHz. We expect that substantial improvements in efficiency should be possible. Moreover, as this material lends itself to integration with conventional electronic circuitry, it should be relatively straightforward to develop finely structured phase arrays of these devices, which would give control over the wavefront of the acoustic emissions.