Resolution Enhancement of Scanning Tomographic Acoustic Microscope System

We proposed to use shear waves instead of longitudinal waves in a STAM (scanning tomographic acoustic microscope system) in which the specimens are solid. For any specimen with a shear modulus, mode conversion will take place at the water-solid interface. Some of the energy of the insonifying longitudinal waves in the water will convert to shear wave energy within the specimen. The shear wave energy is detectable and can be used for tomographic reconstruction. The resolution limitation of STAM depends on the available angular view and the acoustic wavelength. While wave transmission in most solid specimens is limited to about 20°for longitudinal waves, we show that it is about twice that high for shear waves. Since the wavelength of the shear wave is shorter than that of the longitudinal wave, we are able to achieve the high resolution. In order to compare the operation of a shear-wave STAM with that of the conventional longitudinal-wave STAM we have simulated tomographic reconstruction for each. Our simulation results with aluminum specimen and back-and-forth propagation algorithm showed resolution of a shear-wave STAM is better than that of a longitudinal-wave STAM.