This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 7612, including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, and the Conference Committee listing.

We have developed an all-fiber system which we use to demonstrate slow and fast light based on electromagnetically induced transparency in a 20 meter acetylene-filled photonic microcell. Using this system, 30 ns pulses of probe light were delayed and advanced by up to 5 ns and 1 ns respectively. The delay/advance is tunable through the probe detuning and the coupling Rabi frequency. Through optimization of experimental parameters such as acetylene pressure, coupling laser power and decoherence rates it is shown that a pulse delay of 30 ns/m is possible. Limitations imposed on the fiber length by resonance group velocity dispersion and spectral reshaping are also discussed. In addition to optical buffering, we suggest a slow-light based fiber optical gyroscope with an enhanced signal-to-noise ratio of ~ 92.

Seeding Brillouin scattering with a sufficiently efficient source of coherent phonons has the potential to produce energy-sensitive photon detectors. Based on this idea, we propose and analyze some possible designs for such a detector.

Slow-light technology via stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in an optical fiber has attracted a lot of attention owing to its flexible gain spectrum tailoring capacity, good compatibility with existing telecommunication systems, and great application for photonic switchers and routers in ultra-high-speed photonic networks. In this paper we present a general theoretical model for analyzing the dynamic behavior of the nonlinear interactions of the transient SBS process based on the three-wave coupled-amplitude equations for the pump, Stokes and acoustic waves. Spatial and temporal evolution of a generating slow-light pulse with the duration of sub-nanosecond under double broadband pump case is accurately simulated owing to the fact that our model includes the second-order derivative of the acoustic field. We conclude that the origin of the pulse broadening and distortion can be explained in terms of the temporal decay of the induced acoustic field.

We report experimental study of laser phase noise to intensity noise conversion in electromagnetically induced transparency. In particular, we studied how various experimental parameters such as one and two-photon detunings and optical depth affect the intensity noise spectrum. Connection between the intensity noise level and the intensity cross correlation between the two EIT fields was also investigated.

In this manuscript predicted delay is developed for a pulse propagating through an atomic vapor. Theoretical description for pulse delay is developed from atomic absorption coefficient with hyperfine structure and Voigt lineshape. Predicted delays are in agreement with observed delays in a cesium vapor cell at various temperatures between 78.9°C and 137.2°C.

This paper reviews a number of optical gyroscope architectures utilizing either slow or fast light that have been recently proposed in the literature to enhance rotation sensitivity, with a view to separate the schemes that offer a genuine enhancement from the ones that do not. The overall conclusion is that although slow-light coupled-resonator systems have interesting applications in other fields, for example for filtering or switching, none of the schemes proposed to date enable any enhancement in rotation sensitivity. Simple guidelines are outlined in an attempt to help clear misconceptions and hopefully reduce the number of erroneous publications on this subject in the future. On the other hand, fast light in a ring laser gyro can potentially enhance rotation sensitivity by up to six orders of magnitude. Future research directions likely to be fruitful are also outlined.

We study the dispersion properties of a microring/microdisk based CROW delay line. We show that despite the double degeneracy of the individual resonators, the Bloch modes of the CROW split into non-degenerate symmetric and antisymmetric branches. Depending on the inter-resonator gap and the angular modal number, these distinct branches may not overlap at all, thus suppressing the propagation of whispering gallery modes based Bloch waves. The impact of the additional (modal) dispersion on the achievable delays and the penalty on communication link are studied it detail. The dispersion cause by the symmetry of Bloch modes symmetry is found to be substantial, especially for ultra-compact CROWs, and may result in substantial performance degradation if not taken into account.

The phenomenon of all-optical Ramsey interference using pulsed coherent population trapping (CPT) beams provides a new avenue for developing frequency standards using atomic vapor. In this study, we show that frequency narrowed Ramsey fringes can be produced in rubidium vapor without the effect of power broadening. We observed fringes of width as narrow as 1 kHz using a buffer-gas filled rubidium cell. A compact injection-locked laser (ILL) system was used to generate CPT beams. Studies also show that ac Stark effect on Ramsey fringes can be reduced, and higher frequency stability can be achieved in a clock application. The results are encouraging to propose an architecture for development of a pulsed CPT Ramsey clock. In this paper, we also provide related discussions on clock frequency stability, and our plans for future experiments.

Linear and non-linear interactions in electromagnetically induced transparency and related pump-probe optical phenomena involving moving many-electron atomic systems are investigated using a reduced-density-matrix approach. Time-domain (equation-of-motion) and frequency-domain (resolvent-operator) formulations are developed in a unified manner. The standard Born (lowest-order perturbation-theory) and Markov (short-memory-time) approximations are systematically introduced within the framework of the general non-perturbative and non-Markovian formulations. A preliminary semiclassical perturbation-theory treatment of the electromagnetic interaction is adopted. However, it is emphasized that a quantized-electromagnetic-field approach is essential for a self-consistent quantum-mechanical formulation. Our primary result is the derivation of compact Liouville-space operator expressions for the linear and the general (n'th order) non-linear macroscopic electromagnetic-response tensors. These expressions can be evaluated for coherent initial atomic excitations and for the full tetradic-matrix form of the Liouville-space self-energy operator representing the environmental interactions in the Markov approximation. Collisional interactions between atoms can be treated in various approximations for the self-energy operator, and the influence of Zeeman coherences on the electromagnetic-pulse propagation can be investigated by including an applied magnetic field on an equal footing with the electromagnetic fields.

We study propagation losses in slow light photonic crystal waveguides and show that dispersion engineering can reduce the loss. We develop an improved understanding of why and how this occurs and develop an new approach to modeling these devices that provides new design insights.

We demonstrate, theoretically and experimentally, that the modes of coupled cavities created in periodic waveguides can depend critically on the lateral shift between the cavities. In the absence of such shift, the modes feature symmetric or antisymmetric profiles, and their frequency splitting generally increases as the cavities are brought closer. We show that the longitudinal shift enables flexible control over the fundamental modes, which frequency detuning can be reduced down to zero. Our coupled-mode theory analysis reveals an intrinsic link between the mode tuning and the transformation of slow-light dispersion at the photonic band-edge. We illustrate our approach through direct numerical modelling of cavities created in arrays of dielectric rods, nanobeam structures, and two-dimensional photonic-crystal waveguides. We also present experimental results for coupled rod cavities confirming our predictions.

We demonstrate a fast optical correlator using tunable delay of slow light in chirped photonic crystal coupled waveguide. Laser heating was performed for the tuning with a response speed up to several kHz. We clearly observed the crosscorrelation trace of 1.8 ps pulses. The tuning range was limited up to 8.7 ps, but will be extended to several 10 ps by long length devices. As the response is >100 times faster than conventional mechanical methods, the device is suitable for fast data mapping in optical correlation systems such as OCT.

We theoretically analyze the light-storing process in optical microresonator arrays. We propose a passive and an active schemes to strongly slow light. The two mechanisms rely on microresonator chains whose high order dispersion is optimized. The unit cell of the systems is a short sequence of two or four resonators. In the passive process we show that the cancellation of the third order of dispersion allows the propagation of short pulses with no significant distortion in a microresonator array. The second process needs the use of active microresonators whose loss and gain are dynamically tuned. The structure is made of only four resonators and is optimized to avoid pulse distortion as it is the case in the passive scheme. The loss and gain modulations allow the resonant structure to be isolated from the access waveguide and optical pulse to be stored.

Structural imperfections in fabricated microring resonators make post-fabrication tuning of rings useful in order to obtain desired transmission, phase and delay characteristics. Optical trimming of polymer microrings has been demonstrated using photobleaching. Here we investigate post-fabrication tuning of silicon-on-insulator microrings and microring based devices, including aligning the resonant frequencies of rings, and tuning the coupling coefficients.

We developed a predictive model describing harmonic generation and intermodulation distortions in semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs). This model takes into account the variations of the saturation parameters along the propagation axis inside the SOA, and uses a rigorous expression of the gain oscillations harmonics. We derived the spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) of a slow light delay line based on coherent population oscillation (CPO) effects, in a frequency range covering radar applications (from 40 kHz up to 30 GHz), and for a large range of injected currents. The influence of the high order distortions in the input microwave spectrum is discussed, and in particular, an interpretation of the SFDR improvement of a Mach-Zehnder modulator by CPOs effects in a SOA is given.

We review recent theoretical and experimental breakthroughs in the realm of slow and stopped light in structured photonic media featuring negative electromagnetic parameters (permittivity/permeability and/or refractive index). We explain how and why these structures can enable complete stopping of light even in the presence of disorder and, simultaneously, dissipative losses. Using full-wave numerical simulations we show that the incorporation of thin layers made of an active medium adjacently to the core layer of a negative-refractive-index waveguide can completely remove dissipative losses - in a slow-light regime where the effective index of the guided wave is negative. We, also, review and compare several 'trapped rainbow' schemes that have recently been proposed for slowing and stopping light.