Zener Tunneling of Light Waves in an Optical Superlattice

Mher Ghulinyan, Claudio J. Oton, Zeno Gaburro, Lorenzo Pavesi, Costanza Toninelli, and Diederik S. Wiersma
Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 127401 – Published 30 March 2005

Abstract

We report on the observation of Zener tunneling of light waves in spectral and time-resolved transmission measurements, performed on an optical superlattice made of porous silicon. The structure was designed to have two photonic minibands, spaced by a narrow frequency gap. A gradient in the refractive index was introduced to create two optical Wannier-Stark ladders and, at a critical value of the optical gradient, tunneling between energy bands was observed in the form of an enhanced transmission peak and a characteristic time dependence of the transmission.

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  • Received 23 July 2004

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.127401

©2005 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Mher Ghulinyan*, Claudio J. Oton, Zeno Gaburro, and Lorenzo Pavesi

  • Department of Physics, University of Trento and INFM, via Sommarive 14, I-38050 Povo (Trento), Italy

Costanza Toninelli and Diederik S. Wiersma

  • European Laboratory for Nonlinear Spectroscopy and INFM-MATIS, via Nello Carrara 1, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino (Florence), Italy

  • *Electronic addresses: mghool@science.unitn.it; www.science.unitn.it/~semicon/
  • Present address: Departamento de Fisica Basica, University of La Laguna, Avda. Astrofísico Fco. Sánchez s/n, La Laguna 38204 Tenerife, Spain.
  • Electronic addresses: toninelli@lens.unifi.it; www.complexphotonics.org

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Issue

Vol. 94, Iss. 12 — 1 April 2005

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