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The properties of photon tunnelling in a frustrated total internal reflection structure with an indefinite metamaterial slab

Yuanjiang Xiang, Xiaoyu Dai and Shuangchun Wen

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The tunnelling time and lateral shift of photon tunnelling through the frustrated total internal reflection structure containing indefinite metamaterials are obtained by employing the stationary-phase approximation. It is found that the photon tunnelling only occurs when the barrier is thin enough. For the indefinite metamaterial with one-sheet hyperbolic dispersion, the anomalous total reflection occurs, and the negative lateral shift and tunnelling time can be obtained. The negative tunnelling time indicates that superluminal propagation could be observed when a photon tunnels through the indefinite metamaterial. Both lateral shift and tunnelling time tend to a saturation value, respectively, as the barrier thickness increases. Moreover, the dependence of properties of four kinds of indefinite metamaterial on the thickness, the permittivity and permeability tensors is discussed.


PACS

42.70.-a Optical materials

42.25.Bs Wave propagation, transmission and absorption

78.20.Ci Optical constants (including refractive index, complex dielectric constant, absorption, reflection and transmission coefficients, emissivity)

42.25.Gy Edge and boundary effects; reflection and refraction

Subjects

Condensed matter: electrical, magnetic and optical

Optics, quantum optics and lasers

Dates

Issue 3 (March 2007)

Received 11 July 2006, accepted for publication 15 January 2007

Published 2 February 2007



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