Coherent Perfect Tunneling at Exceptional Points via Directional Degeneracy

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a novel mechanism for loss-tolerant wave tunneling at exceptional points, utilizing directional degeneracy in a passive waveguide system, which could impact various wave-based technologies.

Contribution

It introduces directional degeneracy at exceptional points as a new mechanism for coherent perfect tunneling in passive waveguides, expanding understanding beyond resonance-based effects.

Findings

Achieved coherent perfect tunneling at an exceptional point in a passive waveguide.

Identified directional degeneracy as the key to loss-tolerant tunneling.

Demonstrated a quartic leakage law within a transparency window.

Abstract

Coherent perfect tunneling in the presence of loss and asymmetry remains a fundamental challenge in wave transport, a universal problem across optics, acoustics, and quantum mechanics. Here we demonstrate coherent perfect tunneling at an exceptional point in a passive one-dimensional waveguide cascade with three coupled interfaces. Using a waveguide-invariant scattering framework, we show that the suppression of a selected output channel originates from a directional scattering degeneracy rather than from resonance or absorption collapse. This exceptional-point condition emerges when interference between boundary-induced feedback loops promotes a simple zero of the scattering response to a second-order degeneracy. As a direct consequence, fixed coherent excitation produces a robust quartic leakage law within a transparency-dominated tunneling window. These results establish directional degeneracy as a general mechanism for loss-tolerant tunneling enabled by exceptional points across a broad class of wave systems.