Related papers: Open Letter to the OSA Topical Meeting "Slow and F…
A comparative analysis of two approaches to description of the light modulation pulse delay in a saturable absorber is presented. According to the simplest model, the delay of the optical pulse is a result of distortion of its shape due to…
Quantitative evaluation of some recent 'slow light' experiments based on coherent population oscillations (CPO) shows that they can be more simply interpreted as saturable absorption phenomena. Therefore they do not provide an unambiguous…
In connection with the experiments recently achieved on doped crystals, biological samples, doped optical fibers and semiconductor heterostructures, we revisit the theory of the propagation of a pulse-modulated light in a saturable…
Quantitative analysis of slow light experiments utilising coherent population oscillation (CPO) in a range of saturably absorbing media, including ruby and alexandrite, Er3+:Y2SiO5, bacteriorhodopsin, semi-conductor quantum devices and…
A critical review of experimental studies of the so-called 'slow light' arising due to anomalously high steepness of the refractive index dispersion under conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency or coherent population…
The paper presents a critical analysis of publications devoted to one of the methods for production of the so-called "slow light" (the light with an anomalously low group velocity) due to extremely high local steepness of the dispersion…
It is shown that the effect of hole-burning under conditions of coherent population oscillations as well as the light pulse delay in a saturable absorber (a modification of the "slow light" effect) can be interpreted, in a comprehensive…
There are two opposing models in the analysis of the slow transmission of light pulses through saturable absorbers. The canonical incoherent bleaching model simply explains the slow transmission by combined effects of saturation and of…
In a recent article [R. R. Alfano and D. A. Nolan, Opt. Commun. 361 (2016) 25] the group velocity reduction below the speed of light in the case of certain Bessel beam pulses has been considered and an idea of its application for a natural…
We demonstrate slow and stored light in Rb vapor with a combination of desirable features: minimal loss and distortion of the pulse shape, and large fractional delay (> 10). This behavior is enabled by: (i) a group index that can be…
A series of benchmark tests of slow light in saturable absorbers is proposed. Stage I concerns experimental tests of saturable absorption, which can mimic slow light in saturable media. Stage II outlines the more demanding requirements for…
We consider group delay and broadening using two strongly absorbing and widely spaced resonances. We derive relations which show that very large pulse bandwidths coupled with large group delays and small broadening can be achieved. Unlike…
Saturable absorption is a nonlinear effect where a material's ability to absorb light is frustrated due to a high influx of photons and the creation of electron vacancies. Experimentally induced saturable absorption in copper revealed a…
Group delay for a reflected light pulse from a weakly absorbing dielectric slab is theoretically investigated, and large negative group delay is found for weak absorption near a resonance of the slab ($Re(kd)=m\pi$). The group delays for…
The interaction between a light pulse, traveling in air, and a generic linear, non-absorbing and dispersive structure is analyzed. It is shown that energy conservation imposes a constraint between the group velocities of the transmitted and…
We present experimental evidence that light storage, i.e. the controlled release of a light pulse by an atomic sample dependent on the past presence of a writing pulse, is not restricted to small group velocity media but can also occur in a…
Slow light in moving media reaches a paradoxical regime when the flow speed of the medium approaches the group velocity of light. Pulses can penetrate a region where a counter-propagating flow exceeds the group velocity. When the…
We show that light pulses can be stopped and stored all-optically, with a process that involves an adiabatic and reversible pulse bandwidth compression occurring entirely in the optical domain. Such a process overcomes the fundamental…
We analytically study the linear propagation of arbitrarily shaped light-pulses through an absorbing medium with a narrow transparency-window or through a resonant amplifying medium. We point out that, under certain general conditions, the…
We show experimentally that the effects of "slow and fast light" that are considered to be caused by spectral hole-burning under conditions of coherent population oscillations (CPO) can be universally observed with incoherent light fields…