Maximum time delay achievable on propagation through a slow-light medium

We consider the question of whether there are any fundamental limits to the maximum time delay that can be achieved for a pulse propagating through a slow-light medium. We include in our analysis what we consider to be the dominant competing effects, and we show that in principle they do not lead to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review. A, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics Atomic, molecular, and optical physics, 2005-02, Vol.71 (2), Article 023801
Main Authors: Boyd, Robert W., Gauthier, Daniel J., Gaeta, Alexander L., Willner, Alan E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
LENGTH
LIGHT TRANSMISSION
OPACITY
OPTICS
OPTIMIZATION
PHOTONS
PULSES
QUANTUM MECHANICS
TIME DELAY
VISIBLE RADIATION
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Summary:We consider the question of whether there are any fundamental limits to the maximum time delay that can be achieved for a pulse propagating through a slow-light medium. We include in our analysis what we consider to be the dominant competing effects, and we show that in principle they do not lead to a limitation on the maximum achievable time delay. From this result we conclude that, through optimization, one should be able to delay a pulse by very many pulse lengths; the ability to do so can have important implications for the use of slow-light methods for applications in photonics.
ISSN:1050-2947
1094-1622
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevA.71.023801