Quantum evaporation: An optical transposition

C. Hirlimann; B. Thomas

doi:doi:10.1051/jp4:20020121

Numéro		J. Phys. IV France Volume 12, Numéro 5, June 2002


Page(s)		171 - 172
DOI		https://doi.org/10.1051/jp4:20020121

J. Phys. IV France 12 (2002) Pr5-171
DOI: 10.1051/jp4:20020121

Quantum evaporation: An optical transposition

C. Hirlimann and B. Thomas

Institut de Physique et Chimie des Matériaux de Strasbourg, Groupe d'Optique Non Linéaire et d'Optoélectronique, UMR 7504 du CNRS-ULP, 23 rue du Loess, BP. 20 CR, 67037 Strasbourg cedex, France

Abstract
This work shows experimental evidence for a new quantum evaporation effect theoretically discovered by Bardou and Boosdt. In this effect the tunnelling probability of a particle through a barrier strongly increases when a small momentum is transferred to the particle during its reflection on the barrier. In our experiment we studied the induced tunnelling of a short optical pulse on a Newton-type optical barrier.