Converting a Monopole Emission into a Dipole Using a Subwavelength Structure

High-efficiency emission of multipoles is unachievable by a source much smaller than the wavelength, preventing compact acoustic devices for generating directional sound beams. Here, we present a primary scheme towards solving this problem by numerically and experimentally enclosing a monopole sound source in a structure with a dimension of around 1/10 sound wavelength to emit a dipolar field. The radiated sound power is found to be more than twice that of a bare dipole. Our study of efficient emission of directional low-frequency sound from a monopole source in a subwavelength space may have applications such as focused ultrasound for imaging, directional underwater sound beams, miniaturized sonar, etc.