Angular spectrum approach for the computation of group and phase velocity surfaces of acoustic waves in anisotropic materials

The decomposition of an acoustic wave into its angular spectrum representation creates an effective base for the calculation of wave propagation effects in anisotropic media. In this method, the distribution of acoustic fields is calculated in arbitrary planes from the superposition of the planar components with proper phase shifts. These phase shifts depend on the ratio of the distance between the planes to the normal component of the phase slowness vector. In anisotropic media, the phase shifts depend additionally on the changes of the slowness with respect to the direction of the propagation vector and the polarization. Those relations are obtained from the Christoffel equation. The method employing the fast Fourier transformation algorithm is especially suited for volume imaging in anisotropic media, based on holographic detection in transmission of acoustic waves generated by a point source. This technique is compared with measurements on crystals performed by phase-sensitive scanning acoustic microscopy.