A transducer according to various aspects of the present invention provides high fractional bandwidth with relatively low degradation of the pulse duration and sensitivity. The transducer includes a back matching layer behind the transducer material. The back matching layer is characterized by an impedance selected to transmit a selected portion of the backwards propagating acoustic energy to an absorption layer. The remaining acoustic energy is reflected in the desired direction of propagation. As a result, the transducer provides enhanced bandwidth without excessive loss of sensitivity or increase in pulse duration.