Liquid sensor utilizing a regular phononic crystal with normal incidence of sound

A phononic crystal device is investigated as sensor platform utilizing resonant transmission. Here, we use a phononic crystal plate consisting of a solid matrix and liquid-filled holes. The device is fully immersed into the liquid in such a way that the incidence direction of sound is normal to the plate. A characteristic transmission peak, calculated using finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) and determined with two different experimental setups, has been found to strongly depend on the liquid sound velocity. The peak maximum frequency serves as measure for liquid composition.