Acoustic beam splitting in a sonic crystal around a directional band gap

Beam splitting upon refraction in a triangular sonic crystal composed of aluminum cylinders in air is experimentally and numerically demonstrated to occur due to finite source size, which facilitates circumvention of a directional band gap. Experiments reveal that two distinct beams emerge at crystal output, in agreement with the numerical results obtained through the finite-element method. Beam splitting occurs at sufficiently-small source sizes comparable to lattice periodicity determined by the spatial gap width in reciprocal space. Split beams propagate in equal amplitude, whereas beam splitting is destructed for oblique incidence above a critical incidence angle.