Tunable Asymmetric Acoustic Absorption in Ventilated Metasurfaces

Abstract

Asymmetric sound absorption is essential for advanced acoustic manipulation. However, current frequency modulation and broadbanding highly depend on geometric reconfiguration, leading to inevitable structural complexity that impedes their practical applications. Here, we propose a tunable, highly efficient, asymmetric ventilated acoustic system comprising two heterogeneous resonators. Specifically, it couples a highly dissipative space-coiling resonator (SCR) as a dark mode for energy consumption, alongside a weakly damped Helmholtz resonator as a bright mode acting as a reflective soft boundary. Theoretical and numerical analyses reveal strong asymmetry within the deep-subwavelength region (with a resonator size of approximately λ/9.4), achieving 99% absorption for left-incident waves and 98% reflection for right-incident ones. Furthermore, the SCR introduces an interesting degree of freedom for acoustic tuning. Simply rotating the resonator induces a 92% absorption drop (~11 dB attenuation), functioning as an "Acoustic Switch". Moreover, this rotation significantly shifts the operating band. By parallel-coupling multi-angle isomorphic resonators, we achieve efficient broadband absorption (>0.8) from 325 to 375 Hz, offering an attractive paradigm for tunable acoustic metasurfaces and ventilated absorbers.