A Knob for Changing Light Propagation from Subluminal to Superluminal

We show how the application of a coupling field connecting the two lower metastable states of a lambda-system can produce a variety of new results on the propagation of a weak electromagnetic pulse. In principle the light propagation can be changed from subluminal to superluminal. The negative group index results from the regions of anomalous dispersion and gain in susceptibility.Comment: 6 pages,5 figures, typed in RevTeX, accepted in Phys. Rev.

Superluminal optical pulse propagation in nonlinear coherent media

The propagation of light-pulse with negative group-velocity in a nonlinear medium is studied theoretically. We show that the necessary conditions for these effects to be observable are realized in a three-level $\Lambda$-system interacting with a linearly polarized laser beam in the presence of a static magnetic field. In low power regime, when all other nonlinear processes are negligible, the light-induced Zeeman coherence cancels the resonant absorption of the medium almost completely, but preserves the dispersion anomalous and very high. As a result, a superluminal light pulse propagation can be observed in the sense that the peak of the transmitted pulse exits the medium before the peak of the incident pulse enters. There is no violation of causality and energy conservation. Moreover, the superluminal effects are prominently manifested in the reshaping of pulse, which is caused by the intensity-dependent pulse velocity. Unlike the shock wave formation in a nonlinear medium with normal dispersion, here, the self-steepening of the pulse trailing edge takes place due to the fact that the more intense parts of the pulse travel slower. The predicted effect can be easily observed in the well known schemes employed for studying of nonlinear magneto-optical rotation. The upper bound of sample length is found from the criterion that the pulse self-steepening and group-advance time are observable without pulse distortion caused by the group-velocity dispersion.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figure

Subluminal to superluminal propagation in a left-handed medium

In this paper we report large group delays in the propagation of narrow-band pulses through a dispersive medium with both dielectric function and magnetic permeability negative. We show how the numerical results can be understood in terms of the phase time as calculated from the complex transmission amplitude. We also demonstrate superluminal passage and saturation of phase time in the same material albeit in a different spectral region.Peer reviewedPhysic

Une courbe de transition antiferromagnétique dans un sel tutton de cobalt au-dessous de 100 millidegrés absolus

On présente des résultats de quelques expériences faites avec une sphère mono-cristalline de sulfate de cobalt ammoniacal, au-dessous du point Curie (0,084° K). Ces expériences suggèrent que l'état antiferromagnétique de ce sel ne peut exister que dans des champs assez faibles : il y a une courbe de transition, analogue en quelque sorte à la courbe de transition supraconductrice. A l'intérieur de cette courbe, le sel montre des propriétés antiferromagnétiques; à l'extérieur, on peut lui appliquer (en première approximation) la théorie de Brillouin