English

Do single photons tunnel faster than light?

Quantum Physics 2015-05-13 v1 Optics

Abstract

Experiments done in the early 1990's produced a surprising result: that single photons pass through a photonic tunnel barrier with a group velocity faster than the vacuum speed of light. Subsequent experiments with classical pulses have also revealed apparent superluminal group velocities as well as tunneling times that saturate with barrier length, a phenomenon known as the Hartman effect. In this paper we show that the measured delays are in fact cavity lifetimes as opposed to transit times. This interpretation resolves the Hartman paradox and shows that tunneling is not superluminal as widely believed.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0708.3889,
  title  = {Do single photons tunnel faster than light?},
  author = {Herbert G. Winful},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0708.3889},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

Invited Paper presented at the SPIE Conference "The Nature of Light: What are Photons?", San Diego, CA, August 26, 2007

R2 v1 2026-06-21T09:11:39.349Z