Entrainment and stimulated emission of ultrasonic piezoelectric auto-oscillators.

Theoretical modeling and laboratory tests are conducted for nonlinear auto-oscillating piezoelectric ultrasonic devices coupled to reverberant elastic bodies. The devices are shown to exhibit behavior familiar from the theory of coupled auto-oscillators. In particular, these spontaneously emitting devices adjust their limit-cycle frequency to the spectrum of the body. It is further shown that the auto-oscillations can be entrained by an applied field; an incident wave at a frequency close to the frequency of the natural limit cycle entrains the oscillator. Special attention is paid to the phase of entrainment. Depending on details, the phase is such that the oscillator can be in a state of stimulated emission: the incident field amplifies the ultrasonic power emitted by the oscillator. These behaviors are essential to eventual design of an ultrasonic system that would consist of a number of such devices all synchronized to their mutual field, a system that would be an analog to a laser. A prototype uaser is constructed.