Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Notations and acronyms
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Electrons and electromagnetic waves in nanostructures
- 2 Basic properties of electromagnetic waves and quantum particles
- 3 Wave optics versus wave mechanics I
- 4 Electrons in periodic structures and quantum confinement effects
- 5 Semiconductor nanocrystals (quantum dots)
- 6 Nanoplasmonics I: metal nanoparticles
- 7 Light in periodic structures: photonic crystals
- 8 Light in non-periodic structures
- 9 Photonic circuitry
- 10 Tunneling of light
- 11 Nanoplasmonics II: metal–dielectric nanostructures
- 12 Wave optics versus wave mechanics II
- Part II Light–matter interaction in nanostructures
- Author index
- Subject index
10 - Tunneling of light
from Part I - Electrons and electromagnetic waves in nanostructures
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Notations and acronyms
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Electrons and electromagnetic waves in nanostructures
- 2 Basic properties of electromagnetic waves and quantum particles
- 3 Wave optics versus wave mechanics I
- 4 Electrons in periodic structures and quantum confinement effects
- 5 Semiconductor nanocrystals (quantum dots)
- 6 Nanoplasmonics I: metal nanoparticles
- 7 Light in periodic structures: photonic crystals
- 8 Light in non-periodic structures
- 9 Photonic circuitry
- 10 Tunneling of light
- 11 Nanoplasmonics II: metal–dielectric nanostructures
- 12 Wave optics versus wave mechanics II
- Part II Light–matter interaction in nanostructures
- Author index
- Subject index
Summary
Oh, Kitty! how nice it would be if we could only get through into Looking-glass House! I'm sure it's got, oh! such beautiful things in it! Let's pretend there's a way of getting through into it, somehow, Kitty…. In another moment Alice was through the glass, and had jumped lightly down into the Looking-glass room.
Lewis Carroll, “Through the Looking Glass (And What Alice Found There)”Is it possible for light to “jump lightly” through the looking glass as Alice did? Actually there is no absolutely reflecting border for electromagnetic waves provided that the material forming the reflecting border is restricted in space along the light propagation direction. A variety of light-through-the-looking-glass tunneling phenomena will be the subject of this chapter with the intriguing and challenging issue of superluminal light propagation in tunneling events, as well as with parallel analogies to quantum mechanical counterparts in nanoelectronics. Before reading this chapter, it is advisable to read Sections 3.4 and 3.5 in Chapter 3 for an introduction to tunneling effects in quantum mechanics and optics, as well as Section 7.11 of Chapter 7 where the problem of speed of light evaluation in complex structures has been addressed.
Tunneling of light: getting through the looking glass
Probably, every known physical case of very high reflectivity of light at some material border or interface brings about an evanescent field which penetrates forward through the border or interface under consideration.
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- Information
- Introduction to Nanophotonics , pp. 317 - 335Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010