Prefect Klein tunneling in anisotropic graphene-like photonic lattices

Abstract

We study the scattering of waves off a potential step in deformed honeycomb lattices. For small deformations below a critical value, perfect Klein tunneling is obtained. This means that a potential step in any direction transmits waves at normal incidence with unit transmission probability, irrespective of the details of the potential. Beyond the critical deformation, a gap in the spectrum is formed, and a potential step in the deformation direction reflects all normal-incidence waves, exhibiting a dramatic transition form unit transmission to total reflection. These phenomena are generic to honeycomb lattice systems, and apply to electromagnetic waves in photonic lattices, quasi-particles in graphene, cold atoms in optical lattices