Inhibition of light tunneling in chirped and longitudinally modulated semi-infinite waveguide arrays

The inhibition of light tunneling in chirped and longitudinally modulated semi-infinite waveguide arrays where the refractive index is linearly modulated in the transverse direction and harmonically modulated along the light propagation direction is considered. We report on the effect of the refractive index transverse amplitude modulation rate, longitudinal modulation frequency and depth on tunneling inhibition in both linear and nonlinear regimes. We show that in the linear regime an optimal value for the transverse amplitude modulation rate of refractive index exists and can determine the optimal longitudinal modulation frequency or depth leading to a maximum of distance-averaged power fraction. In the nonlinear regime the tunneling inhibition dynamics is affected dramatically by the transverse amplitude modulation rate and the associated electric field amplitude of the input beam.