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Physical review. B, Condensed matter

Pulse saturation behavior of inhomogeneously broadened lines. I. Slow spectral diffusion case

Jean‐Pierre Korb, J. Maruani

Published Feb 1, 1981• 14 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A model involving several coupled thermodynamic reservoirs is used to describe the behavior of inhomogeneously broadened absorption and dispersion signals under resonant and non-resonant stationary weak-pulse saturation. This model allows a good reproduction of the hole-burning and dipolar-reservoir effects observed on absorption lines and predicts similar, as yet unobserved, effects for dispersion signals.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.23.971

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arXiv:0904.4780•Apr 30, 2009•0 citations
A model involving several coupled thermodynamic reservoirs is used to describe the behavior of inhomogeneously broadened absorption and dispersion signals under resonant and non-resonant stationary weak-pulse saturation. This model allows a good reproduction of the hole-burning and dipolar-reservoir effects observed on absorption lines and predicts similar, as yet unobserved, effects for dispersion signals.
The paper presents a critical analysis of publications on one of the methods of creating so-called slow light (light with an anomalously low group velocity) arising due to a high steepness of the refractive index dispersion curve. The method employs, for this purpose, the effect of coherent population oscillations accompanied by burning of a narrow spectral hole in the homogeneously broadened absorption spectrum. The interpretation of the experimental data in the studies under consideration is based on the analysis of the response of a nonlinear medium to a low-frequency intensity modulation of the propagating light beam. We show that all the observations of these papers can be easily interpreted in the framework of the simplest model of a saturable absorber and have nothing to do with the hole burning effect or group velocity reduction.
Quantitative analysis of slow light experiments utilising coherent population oscillation (CPO) in a range of saturably absorbing media, including ruby and alexandrite, Er 3+ :Y 2 SiO 5 , bacteriorhodopsin, semiconductor quantum devices and erbium-doped optical fibres, shows that the observations may be more simply interpreted as saturable absorption phenomena. A basic two-level model of a saturable absorber displays all the effects normally associated with slow light, namely phase shift and modulation gain of the transmitted signal, hole burning in the modulation frequency spectrum and power broadening of the spectral hole, each arising from the finite response time of the non-linear absorption. Only where hole-burning in the optical spectrum is observed (using independent pump and probe beams), or pulse delays exceeding the limits set by saturable absorption are obtained, can reasonable confidence be placed in the observation of slow light in such experiments. Superluminal (“fast light”) phenomena in media with reverse saturable absorption (RSA) may be similarly explained.
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 erbium doped optical fibres, shows that the observations may be more simply interpreted as saturable absorption phenomena. A basic two-level model of a saturable absorber displays all the effects normally associated with slow light, namely phase shift and modulation gain of the transmitted signal, hole burning in the modulation frequency spectrum and power broadening of the spectral hole, arising from the finite response time of the non-linear absorption. Only where hole-burning in the optical spectrum is observed (using independent pump and probe beams), or pulse delays exceeding the limits set by saturable absorption are obtained, can reasonable confidence be placed in the observation of slow light in such experiments. Superluminal ('fast light') phenomena in media with reverse saturable absorption (RSA) may be similarly explained.