Noncausal time response in frustrated total internal reflection?
Tunneling of photons in frustrated total internal reflection has been studied in the time domain with single-cycle femtosecond pulses. It is seen that both the phase and energy of the pulse travel faster than the speed of light in vacuum. Theoretical analysis of the experiments shows that the time-response function for electromagnetic waves propagating in the air gap is noncausal. However, it is found that superluminal signal propagation is not possible in this case because of the inevitable diffractive spreading of the signal beam.
Carey
JJ
Femtosecond Research Centre, Department of Physics and Applied Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 0NG, United Kingdom.
Zawadzka
J
Jaroszynski
DA
Wynne
K