Slow light and its applications

Boyd

Zhang Shuo

The last decade is of great significance for the development of slow light technology.In order to study on the slow light technology deeply,several kinds of slowing light technologies,such as Electromagnetically Induced Transparency(EIT),Coherent Population Oscillation(CPO),Stimulated Brillouin Scattering(SBS) and photonic crystal waveguide,were contrasted and analyzed.Also some important theoretical and technical developments to improve performance of slow light in last decade were introduced,and then problems and shortcomings existing in slowing technology were discussed.Finally,this paper focuses on some novel technologies of slowing down light velocity and their primary applications.Moreover,it forecasts the future developing trends of slow light and its potential applications.Through research on slow light,results show that slow light will realize more and more significant application values in the field of optical fiber sensing and other fields.

Marlan O. Scully, Muhammad Suhail Zubairy

Recent studies have shown that light can be slowed down substantially and even stopped. In their Perspective, Scully and Zubairy highlight two reports that may help to use slow and stopped light in applications. In the first report, Bigelow et al . show that light can be slowed to a speed of 100 m/s in room-temperature solids. The work should aid the development of devices that exploit slow light. In the second report, van der Wal et al . use slow-light physics to make correlated photon states, which may find application in quantum cryptography.

Jacob B. Khurgin

Applications of various slow light schemes in nonlinear optics are considered. It is shown that most benefits of slow light fade away at high bit rates. A few realistic applications of slow light are identified.