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Physical Review Letters

Superluminal to Subluminal Transition in the Pulse Propagation in a Resonantly Absorbing Medium

Md. Aminul Islam Talukder, Yoshimitsu Amagishi, Makoto Tomita

Published Apr 16, 2001• 91 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have examined the propagation of femtosecond laser pulses in an absorbing dye solution through a short to a long range of propagation distance. The transmitted pulses show strong spectral shift and a superluminal to subluminal transition in the propagation velocity keeping its initial shape almost intact. It is verified that the peak velocity is well described by a modified group velocity v(S) defined within the framework of the saddle-point method as well as by a recent prediction of the net group delay of surviving frequency.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.86.3546

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We have examined the propagation of femtosecond laser pulses in an absorbing dye solution through a short to a long range of propagation distance. The transmitted pulses show strong spectral shift and a superluminal to subluminal transition in the propagation velocity keeping its initial shape almost intact. It is verified that the peak velocity is well described by a modified group velocity v(S) defined within the framework of the saddle-point method as well as by a recent prediction of the net group delay of surviving frequency.
Propagation of femtosecond light pulses in a resonant absorption medium is studied. The propagation time of the light pulses was measured in a dye solution by the optical-Kerr-gate method. Nonadherence to the conventional group velocity domega/dk , which is defined in weak absorption region, was found. The observed wavelength dependences of the group delay and the spectral change in the anomalous dispersion region are qualitatively in good agreement with the theoretical prediction obtained from the new definitions of group velocity, which can be clearly defined even in strong absorption region.
Spectral reshaping and nonuniform phase delay associated with an electromagnetic pulse propagating in a temporally dispersive medium may lead to interesting observations in which the group velocity becomes superluminal or even negative. In such cases, the finite bandwidth of the superluminal region implies the inevitable existence of a cutoff distance beyond which a superluminal pulse becomes subluminal. In this paper, we derive a closed-form analytic expression to estimate this cutoff distance in abnormal dispersive media with gain. Moreover, the method of steepest descent is used to track the time-frequency dynamics associated with the evolution of the center of mass of a superluminal pulse to the subluminal regime. This evolution takes place at longer propagation depths as a result of the subluminal components affecting the behavior of the pulse. Finally, the analysis presents the fundamental limitations of superluminal propagation in light of factors such as the medium depth, pulse width, and the medium dispersion strength.