Generation of ultrashort Rayleigh wave pulses using the combination of temporal and spatial pulse compression technique

Abstract Rayleigh waves generated by electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs) have been widely used in nondestructive testing and evaluations. To improve the signal to noise ratio (SNR) and spatial resolution of Rayleigh waves simultaneously, the combination of temporal and spatial pulse compression (TSPC) technique is proposed. By analyzing the topology diagram of the typical pulse compression technique, a frequency modulated signal acts as the stretcher and a wavelength modulated meander line coil acts as the compressor. Experimental results indicate that the ultrasound fields of Rayleigh waves using the proposed TSPC technique show a spike shape in the spatial domain. Compared with the typical meander-line coil EMATs, the TSPC technique shows significant improvement of the generated Rayleigh waves. The SNR has increased by 12 dB while the main lobe width has decreased by about 98%.