title: Acoustic analogue of electronic BLOCH oscillations and resonant Zener tunneling in ultrasonic superlattices.
abstract: We demonstrate the existence of Bloch oscillations of acoustic fields in sound propagation through a superlattice of water cavities and layers of methyl methacrylate. To obtain the acoustic equivalent of a Wannier-Stark ladder, we employ a set of cavities with different thicknesses. Bloch oscillations are observed as time-resolved oscillations of transmission in a direct analogy to electronic Bloch oscillations in biased semiconductor superlattices. Moreover, for a particular gradient of cavity thicknesses, an overlap of two acoustic minibands occurs, which results in resonant Zener-like transmission enhancement.
authors.affiliation: Wave Phenomena Group, Department of Electronic Engineering, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Camino de Vera, E-46022 Valencia, Spain.
authors.forename: Helios
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sanchis-Alepuz
authors.forename: Yuriy A
authors.initials: YA
authors.lastname: Kosevich
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sánchez-Dehesa