Bessel beam ultrasonic transducer: Fabrication method and experimental results

We report experimental results from a first-of-a-kind ultrasonic transducer that generates a beam with a Bessel function profile. Using a technique of nonuniform poling, an axially symmetric Bessel function pattern is ‘‘polarized into’’ a piezoelectric ceramic element. The resulting circular-disk transducer has the usual full-plating electrode configuration, but produces an ultrasonic beam with a radial displacement profile approximating that of the Bessel function J0 (r), both in amplitude and in phase. The radiation field of a 1-in.-diam, 2.25 MHz Bessel transducer mapped out with a point probe shows good agreement with calculated results using a Gauss-Hermite model. Bessel transducers are of particular interest in attempts to achieve ‘‘diffractionless’’ beams.