Addressing the delay-time-bandwidth problem in slow light

摘要

For many applications of slow or stopped light, the delay-time-bandwidth product is a fundamental issue. However, existing slow light demonstrations do not give a satisfactory delay-time bandwidth product, especially in room temperature solids. Here we demonstrate that the use of artificial inhomogeneous broadening has the potential to solve this problem by simultaneously slow down all the frequency components of the input pulse. The proof of principle experiment was done using three-wave mixing in a photorefractive crystal Ce:BaTiO_3 where Bragg selection is used to provide the inhomogeneity.