Related papers: Accelerating and decelerating space-time optical w…
Controlling the group velocity of an optical pulse typically requires traversing a material or structure whose dispersion is judiciously crafted. Alternatively, the group velocity can be modified in free space by spatially structuring the…
All known realizations of optical wave packets that accelerate along their propagation axis, such as Airy wave packets in dispersive media or wave-front-modulated X-waves, exhibit a constant acceleration; that is, the group velocity varies…
An optical buffer having a large delay-bandwidth-product -- a critical component for future all-optical communications networks -- remains elusive. Central to its realization is a controllable inline optical delay line, previously…
The group velocity of 'space-time' wave packets $-$ propagation-invariant pulsed beams endowed with tight spatio-temporal spectral correlations $-$ can take on arbitrary values in free space. Here we investigate theoretically and…
Spatial structuring of an optical pulse can lead in some cases upon free propagation to changes in its temporal profile. For example, introducing conventional angular dispersion into the field results in the pulse encountering…
Introducing precise spatio-temporal structure into a pulsed optical field can lead to remarkable changes with its free propagation. `Space-time' (ST) wave packets, for example, propagate rigidly at a tunable group velocity in free space by…
It is typically assumed that the fluctuations associated with a stationary broadband incoherent field propagate in free space at the speed of light in vacuum c. Here we introduce the concept of 'coherence group velocity', which -- in…
We consider rectilinear free-space propagation of electromagnetic wavepackets using electromagnetic field theory, scalar wavepacket propagation, and quantum-mechanical formalism. We demonstrate that spatially localized wavepackets are…
Space-time (ST) wave packets are propagation-invariant pulsed optical beams whose group velocity can be tuned in free space by tailoring their spatio-temporal spectral structure. To date, efforts on synthesizing ST wave packets have striven…
In this letter we experimentally demonstrate that the signal velocity, defined as the earliest time when a signal is detected above the realistic noise floor, may be altered by a region of anomalous dispersion. We encode information in the…
Space-time modulation of refractive index can produce synthetically moving interfaces with arbitrary apparent velocities, including superluminal motion, offering new ways to control light in dynamic media. On the other hand, space-time wave…
That the speed of light in free space is constant is a cornerstone of modern physics. However, light beams have finite transverse size, which leads to a modification of their wavevectors resulting in a change to their phase and group…
Optical wave packets that are localized in space and time, but nevertheless overcome diffraction and travel rigidly in free space, are a long sought-after field structure with applications ranging from microscopy and remote sensing, to…
Although diffractive spreading is an unavoidable feature of all wave phenomena, certain waveforms can attain propagation-invariance. A lesser-explored strategy for achieving optical selfsimilar propagation exploits the modification of the…
Introducing correlations between the spatial and temporal degrees of freedom of a pulsed optical beam (or wave packet) can profoundly alter its propagation in free space. Indeed, appropriate spatio-temporal spectral correlations can render…
The group velocity for pulses in an optical medium can be negative at frequencies between those of a pair of laser-pumped spectral lines. The gain medium then can amplify the leading edge of a pulse resulting in a time advance of the pulse…
Space-time wave packets can propagate invariantly in free space with arbitrary group velocity thanks to the spatio-temporal correlation. Here it is proved that the space-time wave packets are stable in dispersive media as well and free from…
Space-time light structuring has emerged as a very powerful tool for controlling the propagation dynamics of pulsed beam. The ability to manipulate and generate space-time distributions of light has been remarkably enhanced in past few…
We report the propagation of fast wavepackets in classical non-Hermitian lattices, where the group velocity is controlled by the non-Hermiticity parameters, and can be made higher than in the Hermitian counterpart. Specifically, we obtain a…
A plane monochromatic wave propagates in vacuum at the velocity of c. However, wave packets limited in space and time are used to transmit energy and information. Here it has been shown based on the wave approach that the on-axis part of…