Acousto-luminescence: sound into light

In this contribution, we report on ultrasonically stimulated mechanoluminescence. We em-ploy this acousto-luminescent (AL) effect for the reconstruction of the 3D radiation field of an ultrasonic piston transducer (f = 3.3 MHz). We found that the AL activated region has a specific geometrical shape, representing the local spatial distribution of the incident pressure field. By varying the insonification distance, multiple 2D slices of the transducer's radiation field have been obtained by which the full 3D radiation field may be reconstructed. The obtained AL results are confronted with classical scanning hydrophone experiments as well as with ultrasonic holography, showing good correspondence.