Evrim Yazgin
Cosmos science journalist
Software developed by Australian researchers accurately models the way sound, water or light waves are scattered by particles in complex formations.
This will speed up the time it takes to design metamaterials – artificial materials used to amplify, block and detect waves.
Metamaterials are comprised of at least 2 different materials. They were first developed in the 1990s and are now used in a variety of applications including devices in medical, aerospace, energy and automotive industries.
Metamaterials have unique properties not found in nature. Engineers can design metamaterials to interact with electromagnetic, sound or other waves by controlling the size, shape and arrangement of their nanoscale structures.
TMATSOLVER is a tool that simulates interactions between waves and particles with different shapes and properties. It can handle several hundred scatterers even when they have complex shapes.
Lead author Stuart Hawkins from Macquarie University in Sydney says the software uses a transition matrix (T-matrix) to numerically describe how objects scatter waves.
“The T-matrix has been used since the 1960s, but we’ve made a big step forward in accurately computing the T-matrix for particles much larger than the wavelength, and with complex shapes,” Hawkins says. “Using TMATSOLVER, we have been able to model configurations of particles that could previously not be addressed.”
Hawkins’s team demonstrated the software’s accuracy by testing it on 4 metamaterial designs.
“We have shown that our software can compute the T-matrix for a very wide range of particles, using the techniques most appropriate for the type of particle,” Hawkins says. “This will enable rapid prototyping and validation of new metamaterial designs.”
The new research is published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A.
