We report on a direct visualization of coherent destruction of tunneling (CDT) of light waves in a double well system which provides an optical analog of quantum CDT as originally proposed by Grossmann, Dittrich, Jung, and Ha¨nggi [Phys. Rev. Lett. 67, 516 (1991)]. The driven double well, realized by two periodically curved waveguides in an Er:Yb-doped glass, is designed so that spatial light propagation exactly mimics the coherent space-time dynamics of matter waves in a driven double well potential governed by the Schro¨dinger equation. The fluorescence of Er ions is exploited to image the spatial evolution of light in the two wells, clearly demonstrating suppression of light tunneling for special ratios between the frequency and amplitude of the driving field.

Visualization of Coherent Destruction of Tunneling in an Optical Double Well System

G Della Valle;E Cianci;V Foglietti;P Laporta;S Longhi
2007

Abstract

We report on a direct visualization of coherent destruction of tunneling (CDT) of light waves in a double well system which provides an optical analog of quantum CDT as originally proposed by Grossmann, Dittrich, Jung, and Ha¨nggi [Phys. Rev. Lett. 67, 516 (1991)]. The driven double well, realized by two periodically curved waveguides in an Er:Yb-doped glass, is designed so that spatial light propagation exactly mimics the coherent space-time dynamics of matter waves in a driven double well potential governed by the Schro¨dinger equation. The fluorescence of Er ions is exploited to image the spatial evolution of light in the two wells, clearly demonstrating suppression of light tunneling for special ratios between the frequency and amplitude of the driving field.
2007
Istituto di fotonica e nanotecnologie - IFN
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14243/42178
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