American Physical Society, Physical Review Letters, 13(98)
DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.98.134301
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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 have employed 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. ; Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett