Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Continuous control of light group velocity from subluminal to superluminal propagation with a standing-wave coupling field in a Rb vapor cell

Journal Article · · Physical Review. A
;  [1]
  1. Department of Physics, Pusan National University, Busan 609-735 (Korea, Republic of)
We present the continuous control of the light group velocity from subluminal to superluminal propagation with an on-resonant standing-wave coupling field in the 5S{sub 1/2}-5P{sub 1/2} transition of the {Lambda}-type system of {sup 87}Rb atoms. When a coupling field was changed from a traveling-wave to a standing-wave field by adjusting the power of a counterpropagating coupling field, the probe pulse propagation continuously transformed from subluminal propagation, due to electromagnetically induced transparency with the traveling-wave coupling field, to superluminal propagation, due to narrow enhanced absorption with the standing-wave coupling field. The group velocity of the probe pulse was measured to be approximately 0.004c to -0.002c as a function of the disparity between the powers of the copropagating and the counterpropagating coupling fields.
OSTI ID:
21546855
Journal Information:
Physical Review. A, Journal Name: Physical Review. A Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 83; ISSN 1050-2947; ISSN PLRAAN
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English