Resonance tunneling through photonic quantum wells

The band gap in photonic materials with periodic spatial modulation of refractive index greater than unity can actually be regarded as a potential barrier for photons. Similar to semiconductor quantum well systems due to the electronic band-gap mismatch, a photonic quantum well can be constructed by sandwiching a uniform medium between two photonic barriers. The transmission and reflection coefficients of light through the photonic quantum well are calculated by a modal expansion method with an R-matrix propagation algorithm. Resonance tunneling through the photonic quantum well structure is observed by varying either the well width or the frequency of incident light. Resonance peaks are found within the band-gap region, and indicate the existence of photon virtual states in the well.