Bloch oscillations and Zener tunneling in two-dimensional photonic lattices

Phys Rev Lett. 2006 Feb 10;96(5):053903. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.053903. Epub 2006 Feb 9.

Abstract

We report on the first experimental observation of photonic Bloch oscillations and Zener tunneling in two-dimensional periodic systems. We study the propagation of an optical beam in a square lattice superimposed on a refractive index ramp. We observe oscillations of the beam inside the first Brilloin zone and tunneling of light from the first to the higher-order bands of the lattice band gap spectrum.