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Physical Review A

Concept of Group Velocity in Resonant Pulse Propagation

Michael D. Crisp

Published Nov 1, 1971• 73 citations
Publisher

Abstract

It is shown that the prediction of Garrett and McCumber that a light pulse's velocity may exceed the speed of light in a resonantly absorbing medium is due to asymmetric absorption of energy from the light pulse. More energy is absorbed from the trailing half of the pulse than from the front half, causing the center of gravity of the pulse to move at a velocity greater than the phase velocity of light. It is also shown that in certain cases a pulse's maximum will propagate at the group velocity even when the pulse as a whole is distorted by dispersion.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.4.2104

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It is shown that the prediction of Garrett and McCumber that a light pulse's velocity may exceed the speed of light in a resonantly absorbing medium is due to asymmetric absorption of energy from the light pulse. More energy is absorbed from the trailing half of the pulse than from the front half, causing the center of gravity of the pulse to move at a velocity greater than the phase velocity of light. It is also shown that in certain cases a pulse's maximum will propagate at the group velocity even when the pulse as a whole is distorted by dispersion.
The pulse velocity in the linear regime in samples of GaP: N with a laser tuned to the bound AAA-exciton line is measured with use of a picosecond time-of-flight technique. The pulse is seen to propagate through the material with little pulse-shape distortion, and with an envelope velocity given by the group velocity even when the group velocity exceeds 3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}1010{10}^{10}1010 cm/sec, $\mathrm{equals}\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}\ensuremath{\infty}$, or becomes negative. The results verify the predictions of Garrett and McCumber.
Propagation of a Gaussian wave packet in an absorbing medium is examined in order to shed light on the physical basis of group velocity which exhibits a singular behavior. It is found that the velocity of the wave packet, defined as the traveling distance of the peak amplitude divided by its flight time, decreases in the absorption range of frequency, although the group velocity becomes infinite in the same range. Fast pulse propagation, which was observed by Chu and Wong and is characterized by a packet velocity faster than the light velocity, turns out to be a characteristic in the early stage of the flight and is understood in terms of packet distortion due to damping of Fourier-component waves in an anomalous dispersion region. It also turns out that slow pulse propagation characterized by a packet velocity less than the light velocity appears for long traveling distance. The results provided a unified picture of wave-packet propagation in an absorbing medium.
Expressions for the stored energy, energy power, power dissipated and the velocity of energy propagation are derived for wave pulses with slowly varying amplitudes. The results are expressed in terms of the dispersion function D( omega ,k, lambda ) which is assumed to be an explicit function of the dissipational parameter lambda . It is shown that in the case of resonant pulse propagation through a non-inverted atomic medium the energy velocity is always less than the free space velocity of light, c. It is also shown, using the expression for the dissipated power in an atomic medium, that the asymmetric absorption of energy of the pulse results in a motion of the pulse maximum at a velocity greater than c.
The propagation of a Gaussian light pulse through a medium having a positive or negative absorption line is examined. Analytical approximations are obtained for the case where the spectral width of the pulse is much smaller than that of the line. It is shown that the pulse remains substantially Gaussian and unchanged in width for many exponential absorption depths, and that the locus of instants of maximum amplitude follows the classical expression for the group velocity, even if this is greater than the velocity of light, or negative. Numerical calculations have been used to examine what happens beyond the limit of usefulness of the analytical approximations.
The dynamics of light pulses with amplitude and phase modulations is investigated for a medium of resonant two-level atoms. It is shown that the pulse-like variations of the phase can be also described in terms of group velocity. It is found that in the nonlinear regime of atom-field interaction, the group velocities of amplitude and phase pulses can have a large imbalance. Namely, amplitude pulses travel at a velocity less than ccc, whereas the group velocity of phase pulses is greater than the velocity of light in free space or it is even negative. The predicted imbalance of the group velocities can be important in the case of chirped pulses propagating in a resonant medium.