Dual Optical Tunneling Times in Frustrated Total Internal Reflection

Abstract

We investigate experimentally the optical tunneling times associated with frustrated total internal reflection of a light beam. Using as physical clocks the lateral shifts and angular deviations suffered by the transmitted and reflected beams, we measure both components of a complex tunneling time: the phase time and a semiclassical time. The phase time is shown to imply superluminal velocities and to depend strongly on boundary conditions not linked to the tunneling process. By contrast, the semiclassical time yields subluminal velocities and is related solely to tunneling.