Resonant tunneling of electromagnetic waves through polariton gaps

TL;DR

This paper investigates the unique resonant tunneling behavior of electromagnetic waves through polariton gaps in dielectric multilayers, revealing sharp resonance features and potential for creating new photonic bands.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analysis of electromagnetic tunneling through polariton gaps, highlighting differences from traditional barriers and quantum tunneling, and explores band formation in periodic structures.

Findings

Resonance maxima width approaches zero near the lower boundary of the stop band.

Resonance transmission peaks can generate new photonic bands within the stop band.

Resonant tunneling behavior differs qualitatively from quantum mechanical tunneling.

Abstract

We consider resonant tunneling of electromagnetic waves through an optical barrier formed by dielectric layers with the frequency dispersion of their dielectric permiability. The frequency region between lower and upper polariton branches in these materials presents a stop band for electromagnetic waves. We show that resonance tunneling through this kind of barriers is qualitatevely different from tunneling through other kind of optical barriers as well as from quantum mechanic tunneling through a rectangular barrier. We find that the width of the resonance maxima of the transmission coeffcient tends to zero as frequency approach the lower boundary of the stop band in a very sharp non-analytical way. Resonance transmission peaks give rise to new photonic bands inside the stop band if one considers periodical array of the layers.