Acoustic wave tunneling across a vacuum gap between two piezoelectric crystals with arbitrary symmetry and orientation

Abstract

It is not widely appreciated that an acoustic wave can ``jump'' or ``tunnel'' across a vacuum gap between two piezoelectric solids, nor has the general case been formulated or studied in detail. Here, we remedy that situation, by presenting a general formalism and approach to study such an acoustic tunneling effect between two arbitrarily oriented anisotropic piezoelectric semi-infinite crystals. The approach allows one to solve for the reflection and transmission coefficients of all the partial-wave modes, and is amenable to practical numerical or even analytical implementation, as we demonstrate by a few chosen examples. The formalism can be used in the future for quantitative studies of the tunneling effect in connection not only with the manipulation of acoustic waves, but with many other areas of physics of vibrations such as heat transport, for example.