Theory of frustrated total internal reflection: Superluminal singularities of optical waveguides

Classical approach to frustrated total internal reflection (FTIR) does not describe its temporal properties, that are additionally considered and their superluminal singularity is shown. The transition to quantum electrodynamics shows that momenta of photons are reduced at FTIR relative to energy, i.e. it is the tunnel process, the nonlocal manifestation of near field. The tunneling consists in the instantaneous jump of excitations (virtual photons) onto definite distance. and can be described by equation having certain instanton features. Thus, the possibility of signal transfer with superluminal group velocity via optical fibers is substantiated that conforms to certain supervisions. Such properties of FTIR near field may explain, in principle, some other observed phenomena. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.