Complete tunneling of acoustic waves between closely spaced piezoelectric crystals

Abstract

When two piezoelectric solids are placed in close proximity, acoustic waves (phonons) can "tunnel" across a vacuum gap transmitting energy between the two solids. Here, we demonstrate analytically that not only is such a phenomenon possible, but that a simple resonance condition exists for which complete transmission of the incoming wave is possible, physically corresponding to the excitation of leaky surface waves. This result is derived for an arbitrary anisotropic crystal symmetry and orientation. We also show that the complete transmission condition can be related to the surface electric impedance and the effective surface permittivity of the piezoelectric material, making it possible to be determined experimentally. In addition, we present numerical results for the maximum power transmittance of a slow transverse wave, tunneling between identical ZnO crystals, as function of all possible crystal orientations. The results show a large range of orientations for which complete tunneling can be achieved.