Studies of slow light with applications in optical beam steering

Abstract

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Rochester. Institute of Optics, 2013.This thesis presents a variety of work on the topic of slow light. It contains research that surveys the many different physical systems capable of producing slow light, and culminates in a project that demonstrates a novel application of slow light related to all-optical phased-array beam steering. It is first shown that high-bandwidth pulses can be substantially delayed with minimal absorption and broadening when transmitted through a cesium vapor cell and tuned between the Cs D2 hyperfine resonances. Next, possibilities for the production of slow light in fiber resonator structures are explored. The delay of a pulse on transmission through a low-finesse fiber ring is measured, and coupled-resonator-induced transparency, a phenomenon analogous to the electromagnetically-induced transparency that is commonly used to create slow light, is demonstrated in a fiber-based coupled-resonator structure. It is then shown that slow light can be created using stimulated Brillouin scattering in an optical fiber, and how specific control of the pump beam's intensity and frequency spectrum can enable slowing of high bandwidth pulses as well as pulse delays and advancements that are tunable over a wide range. A series of experiments that explore the phenomenon of pulse delays and advancements using saturable media are then presented, including work with Erbium-doped fiber and PbS quantum dots. Finally, it is shown how slow light can be applied to the problem of temporal pulse mismatch in a pulsed, scanning, multi-aperture laser radar