A fast full frequency range measurement of nonlinear distortions in the vibration of acoustic transducers and acoustically driven membranes

Recently, a new method was proposed to measure nonlinear distortions in weak nonlinear systems using specially designed broadband excitation signals (odd random phase multisines). During one single experiment, the output response level, the noise level and the level of the nonlinear distortions are simultaneously measured. We implement this method in an opto-acoustic set-up which allows us to measure vibrations with high accuracy. To demonstrate the method, we present results obtained on the membrane of an earphone speaker and a latex membrane. On the earphone good agreement is found between measurements of the produced sound field and the actual membrane vibration using heterodyne interferometry. The results show that heterodyne vibrometry can be used to detect nonlinear distortions which are up to 80 dB below the output level in an acoustically driven system.