We present a detailed semiclassical study on the propagation of a pair of
optical fields in resonant media with and without adiabatic approximation. In
the case of near and on resonance excitation, we show detailed calculation,
both analytically and numerically, on the extremely slowly propagating probe
pulse and the subsequent regeneration of a pulse via a coupling laser. Further
discussions on the adiabatic approximation provide many subtle understandings
of the process including the effect on the band width of the regenerated
optical field. Indeed, all features of the optical pulse regeneration and most
of the intricate details of the process can be obtained with the present
treatment without invoke a full field theoretical method. For very far off
resonance excitation, we show that the analytical solution is nearly detuning
independent, a surprising result that is vigorously tested and compared to
numerical calculations with very good agreement.Comment: 13 pages, 15 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.