“Numerous research efforts have centered on metamaterial-based devices with fascinating wave-control capabilities such as invisibility or illusion cloaks,” said Jian-chun Cheng, a professor at the Institute of Acoustics, in the Department of Physics at Nanjing University. “An acoustic field rotator, however, which can be [considered] a special kind of illusion cloak with the capability of making an object acoustically appear like a rotated one, doesn’t exist yet.”

Field rotators for electromagnetic waves and liquid waves have already been demonstrated and show promise in their respective areas, but “another important type of classical wave, an acoustic wave, is a much more familiar part of our daily lives and could find applications in a variety of situations,” Cheng noted.

Cheng and colleagues designed what they believe to be the first feasible acoustic rotator model and also fabricated a prototype to validate it.