1. A method of probing a material under investigation comprising the steps of: using a plurality of transducers to transmit a single ultrasound beam into the material under investigation, the single ultrasound beam including components generated by each transducer in the plurality of transducers; receiving echoes generated by interactions between the single ultrasound beam and the material under investigation; generating first data from the received echoes, the first data having values that include phase and magnitude information, the values of the first data associated with a time dimension and distributed over at least one spatial dimension; using the phase or magnitude information to identify a subset of distinguished echoes, among the received echoes, resulting from ultrasound beam components generated by a subset of transducers in the plurality of transducers; and transforming the distinguished echoes into second data, the second data having values distributed over at least one more spatial dimension than the first data.