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Applied Optics

Slowdown of group velocity of light by means of phase coupling in photorefractive two-wave mixing

Guoquan Zhang, Rong Dong, Bo Fang, Jingjun Xu

Published Feb 10, 2004• 35 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We show theoretically that the group velocity of light can be slowed down by means of phase coupling in the photorefractive two-wave mixing process. It is shown that the group velocity of light propagating in a photorefractive material could be significantly reduced because of a steep variation of the phase-coupling coefficient with respect to the angular frequency difference between two coupling beams in a two-wave mixing process. The results for the case of a photorefractive Bi12SiO20 crystal are presented and discussed in detail.

DOI
10.1364/ao.43.001167

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We show theoretically that the group velocity of light can be slowed down by means of phase coupling in the photorefractive two-wave mixing process. It is shown that the group velocity of light propagating in a photorefractive material could be significantly reduced because of a steep variation of the phase-coupling coefficient with respect to the angular frequency difference between two coupling beams in a two-wave mixing process. The results for the case of a photorefractive Bi12SiO20 crystal are presented and discussed in detail.
We show theoretically that the group velocity of light pulses can be reduced significantly by use of the steep dispersion properties of the phase coupling effect in the photorefractive two-wave mixing process. The group velocity of light pulses of the order of 0.1 m/s can be achieved in typical photorefractive BSO crystals with an appropriate externally applied electric field and moving gratings of appropriate speeds. It is also shown that the slowly propagating light pulses can be set to be amplified after passing through the photorefractive material.
Based on Kukhtarev's equations, we derive the formulae of intensity-coupling coefficient, the phase-coupling coefficient and the group velocity at large modulation depth. It is theoretically shown that the signal beam can be amplified after passing through the photorefractive crystal and the group velocity reduced to m/s, even cm/s. Meanwhile, we also analyse the influence of the thermal excitation rate and the large signal effects on optical amplification and reduction of light propagation in photorefractive two-wave mixing.
We demonstrated superluminal light propagation with a negative group velocity of -5.7 m/s in a photorefractive Bi 12SiO20 crystal by using the dispersive phase coupling effect in a nondegenerate two-wave mixing process. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first experimental demonstration of superluminal light propagation at room temperature in solids by using a classical wave mixing technique. In addition, we showed the tunability of the group velocity of light between the negative (superluminal light) and the positive (subluminal light) by simply tuning the experimental conditions such as the frequency of the coupling beam, the incident intensity, and the externally applied electric fields.
We show that the group velocities of light pulses can be decelerated dramatically by the use of a dispersive phase-coupling effect through a wave mixing process. We have observed experimentally such a phase-coupling-induced ultraslow light propagation with a group velocity as low as 0.05  m/s0.05\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{m}/\mathrm{s}0.05  m/s in a photorefractive Bi12SiO20{\mathrm{B}\mathrm{i}}_{12}{\mathrm{S}\mathrm{i}\mathrm{O}}_{20}Bi12​SiO20​ crystal at room temperature. Moreover, the ultraslow light is amplified in the Bi12SiO20{\mathrm{B}\mathrm{i}}_{12}{\mathrm{S}\mathrm{i}\mathrm{O}}_{20}Bi12​SiO20​ crystal because of the unidirectional energy transfer from a coupling beam to the ultraslow light. This technique to produce ultraslow light propagation is valid for all nonlinear wave mixing processes with a dispersive phase-coupling effect.
A slowing down of light pulses using backward-wave four-wave mixing is achieved in photorefractive crystals with different coupling strength. The delay and width of the output pulse are studied as a function of the input pulse width and pump intensity ratio for the amplified transmitted beam and for the phase-conjugated beam. The delay characteristics are compared with those of the two-beam coupling. It is demonstrated that the four-wave mixing process ensures a larger slowing down of short pulses (pulses with width shorter than the photorefractive response time) as compared to the photorefractive two-beam coupling scheme and guarantees the elimination of forerunners. The delay of long pulses in the four-wave mixing configuration is almost the same as the one that can be reached with two-beam coupling. The effect of absorption on the nonlinear shape transformation of the output pulses is discussed qualitatively.
Slow and fast light are achieved in two experiments using SPS photorefractive crystal at room temperature. We report that the photorefractive gain achieved by the two wave mixing (TWM) method can control the group velocity of the transmitted light pulses at visible wavelength. It is shown theoretically and experimentally that the time delay and the shape of the output pulse change as a function of the photorefractive gain. The beam fanning has also been used to control the velocity propagation of a single light pulse in the same crystal at λ = 1064 nm. Depending on the orientation of the polar axis, it is possible to accelerate or decelerate a short pulse with duration of order of μs in the crystal.