Nature of "superluminal" barrier tunneling
We show that the distortionless tunneling of electromagnetic pulses through a barrier is a quasistatic process in which the slowly varying envelope of the incident pulse modulates the amplitude of a standing wave. For pulses longer than the barrier width, the barrier acts as a lumped element with re...
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| Published in | Physical review letters Vol. 90; no. 2; p. 023901 |
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| Main Author | |
| Format | Journal Article |
| Language | English |
| Published |
United States
17.01.2003
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| Online Access | Get more information |
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| Summary: | We show that the distortionless tunneling of electromagnetic pulses through a barrier is a quasistatic process in which the slowly varying envelope of the incident pulse modulates the amplitude of a standing wave. For pulses longer than the barrier width, the barrier acts as a lumped element with respect to the pulse envelope. The envelopes of the transmitted and reflected fields can adiabatically follow the incident pulse with only a small delay that originates from energy storage. The theory presented here provides a physical explanation of the tunneling process and resolves the mystery of apparent superluminality. |
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| ISSN: | 0031-9007 |
| DOI: | 10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.023901 |