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Physical Review A

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

Robert W. Boyd, Daniel J. Gauthier, Alexander L. Gaeta, Alan Eli Willner

Published Feb 1, 2005• 202 citations
Publisher

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.71.023801

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Physical Review A•Dec 31, 2008•12 citations
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.
We present an analysis of the propagation of light pulses through materials possessing extreme values of the group velocity. We begin with an analysis of the behaviour that occurs upon propagation through materials possessing simple Lorentzian gain or absorption lines or materials possessing sharp dips in gain or absorption features. We also describe how more complicated lineshapes can be used to tailor the dispersion of a slow-light system. We furthermore present an analysis of fundamental limitations to how many pulse widths a pulse of light can be delayed or advanced. We show how these mechanisms lead to different limits for slow and fast propagation media.
We discuss the maximum achievable time delay of stimulated-Brillouin-scattering-based systems that rely on the superposition of gain and loss spectra. As we will show, the time delay can be enhanced up to 8.5 times if the gain is superimposed with a broad loss and 9.5 times if two narrow losses are superimposed at the wings of the gain. Furthermore, we show that the parametric interaction between the different pump waves is negligibly small. Our theoretical analysis does not include pulse distortions that are accompanied by the delay.
We consider the propagation of a light pulse in a medium with a single resonance. If the frequency of the pulse is tuned far from resonance and the pulse duration is much shorter than the lifetime of the excited state of the resonant particles in the medium (atoms in a gas, impurity ions in a solid, etc.), the group velocity of the pulse is appreciably reduced. It is shown that the slowing down of the group velocity of the pulse is accompanied with a pulse chirp, which produces a pulse broadening in time. It is proposed to use two samples in sequence with opposite chirps (up chirp and down chirp or vice versa) compensating the pulse broadening. Then the pulse can be delayed with almost no losses, distortion, and broadening. However, there is a maximum distance, beyond which the pulse experiences corruption. Pumping with an auxiliary laser beam can control the delay time of the light pulse in the medium. Conditions to eliminate the contribution of the dephasing processes in the pulse propagation are considered.