Modulation-assisted tunneling in laser-fabricated photonic Wannier-Stark ladders

Abstract

We observe Wannier-Stark (W-S) localization in curved photonic lattices, realized using arrays of evanescently coupled optical waveguides. By correctly tuning the strength of inter-site coupling in the lattice, we observe that W-S states become increasingly localized, and eventually fully localized to one site, as the curvature of the lattice is increased. We then demonstrate that tunneling can be successfully restored in the lattice by applying a resonant sinusoidal modulation to the lattice position, an effect that is a direct analogue of photon-assisted tunneling. This precise tuning of the tunneling matrix elements, through resonant modulation-assisted tunneling, opens a novel route for the creation of gauge fields in laser-fabricated photonic lattices.