Acoustic nonlinearity of narrow-band surface wave generated by laser beam with line-arrayed slit mask

Abstract

We examined the mechanism of generation of higher harmonics by theoretically analyzing the frequency characteristics of a narrow-band surface wave generated by a laser beam with line-arrayed slit masks. We experimentally analyzed the effects of slit opening width and laser intensity on the acoustic nonlinearity of aluminum 6061-T6 alloy by using single-slit and line-arrayed slit masks. The magnitude of the harmonic wave depended on the slit opening width. In our experiment, we generated a 1.75-MHz surface wave by using an arrayed slit with intervals of 1.67 mm. The magnitude of the second harmonic component decreased about by 80% when the slit opening width was increased from 0.5 mm to 1.0 mm. In addition, the relationship between the magnitudes of the fundamental and the second harmonic wave showed good linearity, which agreed well with the typical behavior of acoustic nonlinearity.