1.5 mm light beam shift arising from 14 pm variation of wavelength

We investigate the dependence of the Goos-Hanchen shift on the penetration depth of light beam. Experiments reveal that the deeper the penetration depth, the larger the Goos-Hanchen shift becomes. Through a tuning of 14 pm in wavelength, a lateral displacement as large as 1.5 mm is observed on the surface of symmetric metal-cladding optical waveguides with different thicknesses of the guiding layer experimentally. It is proved that the lateral shift is not only closely dependent on the well excitation condition of the guided modes, but also on the penetration depth of the light beam. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America