Transverse Fresnel-Fizeau drag effects in strongly dispersive media

Year: 2003

Authors: Carusotto I., Artoni M., La Rocca G.C., Bassani F.

Autors Affiliation: Ecole Normale Super, Lab Kastler Brossel, F-75231 Paris 05, France; INFM, Dept Chem & Phys Mat, I-25133 Brescia, Italy; INFM, European Lab Nonlinear Spect, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy; Scuola Normale Super Pisa, I-56126 Pisa, Italy; INFM, I-56126 Pisa, Italy.

Abstract: A light beam normally incident upon an uniformly moving dielectric medium is, in general, subject to bendings due to a transverse Fresnel-Fizeau light drag effect. In most familiar dielectrics, the magnitude of this bending effect is very small and hard to detect. Yet, the effect can be dramatically enhanced in strongly dispersive media where slow group velocities in the m/s range have been recently observed taking advantage of the electromagnetically induced transparency effect. In addition to the usual downstream drag that takes place for positive group velocities, we discuss a significant anomalous upstream drag which is expected to occur for negative group velocities. Furthermore, for sufficiently fast speeds of the medium, higher-order dispersion terms are found to play an important role and to be responsible for light propagation along curved paths or the restoration of the time and space coherence of an incident noisy beam. The physics underlying this class of slow-light effects is thoroughly discussed.

Journal/Review: PHYSICAL REVIEW A

Volume: 68 (6)      Pages from: 63819-1  to: 63819-11

KeyWords: Group-velocity; Slow Light; Pulse-propagation; Nonlinear Optics; Moving-media; Ultraslow; Radiation; Passage; Entanglement; Transitions
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.68.063819

Citations: 46
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