Experimental observation of super-Klein tunneling in phononic crystals

We numerically and experimentally report the acoustic analogue of the super-Klein tunneling in a heterojunction of phononic crystals formed with Willis scatterers that exhibit pseudospin-1 Dirac cones. Pseudospin-1 Dirac cones are characterized by a triple states degeneracy in the band structure where two linear bands intersect with a flatband. The scattering properties of pseudospin-1 quasiparticles comprise an unity transmission through one potential barrier at its center frequency for all incident angles, which is called the super-Klein tunneling. In addition, the unity transmission does not depend on the barrier width. The Super-Klein tunneling differs from the conventional Klein tunneling, which consists of perfect transmission only under normal incidence through a potential barrier of any width. The Klein tunneling is predicted in pseudospin-1/2 systems like graphene, which are characterized by a two states degeneracy with two intersecting linear band. This direct observation in this acoustic analogue may have important implications in the exploration of the rich physics of pseudospin-1 quasiparticles.