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SlowandFastLight Propagation inErbium-Doped Fiber

George M. Gehring, Sebastián Jarabo

Published Jan 1, 2005• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

We study propagation oflight pulses andmodulation inanEr-doped fiber inthe regimes ofanomalously slowandsuperluminal groupvelocities. Thepulses experience either delay oradvancement depending onthepumppower. ©2004Optical Society ofAmerica OCIScodes: (060.5530) Pulse propagation andSolitons, (060.2410) Fibers, erbium Light propagation withultra-slow andsuperluminal group velocities havebeenrecently demonstrated insolid state materials atroomtemperature. Theanomalous group velocities caused theprocess ofCoherent Population Oscillations (CPO) wereobserved inruby(1), alexandrite (2), andultracold semiconductor quantum wells (3). In these experiments, theground state population oscillates atthebeat frequencies between thefields applied tothe system andcreates a narrowspectral feature intheabsorption spectrum. Thelinewidth ofthis feature is approximately theinverse oftheground state population recovery time. Inanabsorbing mediumtheoscillations lead toadelay inpulse propagation. Inamediumwithgain, theeffect isreversed andthegroupvelocity is superluminal andcould beevennegative.. Although theCPOapproach wasshowntowork, several practical aspects wereinneedofimprovement Longer interaction lengths aredesirable inorder toincrease fractional delays oradvancements. Anexternal control field that determines thegroup velocity ofthesignal pulses should beintegrated inthesystem. Being able tooperate at1550 nmwould beanimportant feature fortelecommunication applications

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We study propagation oflight pulses andmodulation inanEr-doped fiber inthe regimes ofanomalously slowandsuperluminal groupvelocities. Thepulses experience either delay oradvancement depending onthepumppower. ©2004Optical Society ofAmerica OCIScodes: (060.5530) Pulse propagation andSolitons, (060.2410) Fibers, erbium Light propagation withultra-slow andsuperluminal group velocities havebeenrecently demonstrated insolid state materials atroomtemperature. Theanomalous group velocities caused theprocess ofCoherent Population Oscillations (CPO) wereobserved inruby(1), alexandrite (2), andultracold semiconductor quantum wells (3). In these experiments, theground state population oscillates atthebeat frequencies between thefields applied tothe system andcreates a narrowspectral feature intheabsorption spectrum. Thelinewidth ofthis feature is approximately theinverse oftheground state population recovery time. Inanabsorbing mediumtheoscillations lead toadelay inpulse propagation. Inamediumwithgain, theeffect isreversed andthegroupvelocity is superluminal andcould beevennegative.. Although theCPOapproach wasshowntowork, several practical aspects wereinneedofimprovement Longer interaction lengths aredesirable inorder toincrease fractional delays oradvancements. Anexternal control field that determines thegroup velocity ofthesignal pulses should beintegrated inthesystem. Being able tooperate at1550 nmwould beanimportant feature fortelecommunication applications
The group velocity at which light pulses propagate through a dispersive material system is very different from the vacuum speed of light c, One refers to light as being "slow" for v g << c (Boyd & Gauthier, 2009) or "fast" for v g > c or v g <0 (Stenner et al, 2003 ).For v g <0, the pulse envelope appears to travel backward in the material (Gehring et al, 2006), and hence it is sometimes referred to as "backward light."The subject of slow light has caused keen interest in the past decade or more, and it is possible to control the group velocity of light pulses in the dispersive materials.Interest in slow and fast light dates back to the early days of the 20th century.Sommerfeld and Brillouin (Sommerfeld & Brillouin, 1960) were intrigued by the fact that theory predicts that v g can exceed c, which leads to apparent inconsistencies with Einstein's special theory of relativity.Experimental investigations of extreme propagation velocities were performed soon after the invention of the laser (Faxvog and et al, 1970).In 1999, Harris's group research work greatly stimulated researchers' interests, which showed that light could be slowed down to 17m/s.The result was obtained in ultra cold atom clouds with the use of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), which induces transparency in a material while allowing it to retain strong linear and nonlinear optical properties (Hau et al, 1999).Slow light can also be obtained through the use of the optical response of hot atomic vapors (Philips et al, 2001).These early research works require hard conditions and the slow light cannot operate in room temperature.Recently, researchers found ways to realize slow light operating in room temperature and solid-state materials, which are more suited for many practical applications, namely slow light via stimulated Brillouin scattering(SBS), slow light via coherent population oscillations (CPO), tunable time delays based on group velocity dispersion or conversion/ dispersion(C/D), slow light in fiber Bragg gratings and so on.In this chapter, we describe some of the physical mechanisms that can be used to induce slow and fast light effects in room-temperature solids (Bigelow et al, 2003) and some of the exotic propagation effects that can thereby be observed.We also survey some applications of slow and fast light within the fields of quantum electronics and photonics. Fundamentals of slow and fast lightSlow and fast light refer to the group velocity of a light wave.The group velocity is the velocity most closely related to the velocity at which the peak of a light pulse moves through an optical dispersive material (Milonni, 2005), and is given by the standard result www.intechopen.comRecent Progress in Optical Fiber Research 82where n is the refractive (phase) index and ω is the angular frequency of the carrier wave of the light field.One refers to light as being slow light for v g << c, fast light for for v g > c, and backwards light for v g <0 or v g is negative.Extreme values of the group velocity invariably rely on the dominance of the second contribution to the group index of Equation ( 1).This contribution of course results from the frequency dependence of the refractive index, and for this reason extreme values of the group velocity are usually associated with the resonant or near-resonant response of material systems.According to this theory, slow light is expected in the wings of an absorption line and fast light is expected near line center, and the spatial dispersion, that is, the non-locality in space of the medium response, is another mechanism that can lead to slow light, as has been predicted (Kocharovskaya et al,2001) and observed (Strekalov et al, 2001).We catalogue the main methods to realize slow light in room temperature solid, namely slow light via stimulated Brillouin scattering(SBS), slow light via coherent population oscillations (CPO), tunable time delays based on group velocity dispersion or conversion/ dispersion(C/D), slow light in fiber Bragg gratings and so on.We will describe CPO and SBS slow light in more details.
We observe both extremely slow and superluminal pulse propagation speeds at room temperature in an erbium-doped fiber (EDF). A signal at 1550 nm is sent through an erbium-doped fiber with varying powers of a 980 nm pump. The degree of signal delay or advancement is found to depend significantly on the pump intensity. We observe a maximum fractional advancement of 0.124 and a maximum fractional delay of 0.089. The effect is demonstrated both for a sinusoidally modulated signal and for Gaussian pulses. The ability to control the sign and magnitude of the pulse velocity could have important implications for applications in photonics.
We perform a study of extremely slow pulse propagation speed in densely-doped erbium fibers by using a detuned signal. A quantum coherence effect, coherent population oscillations, produces a very narrow spectral "hole" in the homogeneous broadened absorption profile of the erbium-doped fiber. The resulting rapid spectral variation of the refractive index leads to a large value of the group index. The interparticle interaction between the nearest neighboring active particles due to the high density of erbium ions is considered. The result shows that the nonlinear refractive index can be greatly increased which leads to the smaller group velocity and the larger time delay.