The top rated journal The Journal of the Acoustic Society of America (Q1, IF 1.78) published an article "Holographic extraction of plane waves from an ultrasound beam for acoustic characterization of an absorbing layer of finite dimensions". The authors are D.A. Nikolaev, S.A. Tsysar, V.A. Khokhlova, O.A. Sapozhnikov from LIMU and W. Kreider from Washington State University.

The paper proposes a new method for measuring the speed of sound and the absorption coefficient at megahertz frequencies, based on recording the spatial frequency distribution of the acoustic field generated by an ultrasonic transducer in water using the method of transient acoustic holography. Scanning of holograms of the field is carried out in the presence of a plane-parallel sample between the emitter and the hologram plane and without it. Based on the analysis of the spatial spectrum of the measured holograms the acoustic characteristics of the material under study are determined in a wide frequency band. The proposed approach generalizes the method of sample introduction to the case of arbitrary ultrasonic beams and does not use a plane-wave approximation.

An experimental test of the method for measuring the acoustic characteristics of a rubber material with mechanical properties similar to soft tissues of the body was carried out. It is shown that the method can be applied when using small samples with a volume of 1 cm³. Further, it is planned to carry out work on the development of the proposed method and its application for measuring the acoustic characteristics of biological materials.