Light tunneling inhibition in longitudinally modulated Bragg-guiding arrays

Abstract

We consider a waveguide array in which defect channels with reduced refractive index are spaced periodically and the light guiding is achieved because of Bragg reflection. We show that tunneling between defects can be inhibited using out-of-phase longitudinal modulation of refractive index exclusively in defect channels. Tunneling inhibition is almost perfect for strongly localized modes with propagation constants close to the gap center.