| Light propagation in optical waveguide arrays with a transverse refractive index gradient have provided in the past recent years an experimentally accessible laboratory tool to investigate the optical analogues of coherent Bloch oscillations and Zener tunneling of electrons in crystalline potentials. In this talk the main features of theoretical and experimental results on the subject will be reviewed, with special attention to classical and nonclassical aspects of light propagation in singly and doubly-periodic curved waveguide arrays. Particle-like aspects of photons undergoing Bloch oscillations will be discussed, such as quantum interference effects with no classical counterpart in coherent Bloch-Zener oscillations. |
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