Photonic Tunneling Experiments: Superluminal Tunneling

Abstract

We report on microwave experiments with evanescent modes. The propagation of these “tunneling” modes appear to be instantaneous inside the barrier region independent of barrier length. Data were obtained from various potential barrier configurations and with two basically different measuring procedures. All the results point to a superluminal propagation of evanescent modes through opaque barriers. We question the analogy between evanescent mode propagation and quantum mechanical tunneling.