Abstract

Over the last decade, there has been great progress in devising methods for tailoring the dispersion of optical materials, such as electromagnetically induced transparency, photonic crystals, and nano-optic resonators [1]. By tailoring the dispersion using all-optical methods, it is possible to adjust the group velocity υ_g of a pulse. Large normal dispersion, where the refractive index of the material increases with frequency over some range, results in slow light, where the group index n_g is greater than one and υ_g is less than the speed of light in vacuum. Slow light has potential applications for optical buffering, data synchronization, optical memories, and optical signal processing.

© 2007 IEEE