Abstract

We report the experimental demonstration of the superluminal propagation of multi-spatial-mode images via four-wave mixing in hot atomic vapor, in which all spatial sub-regions propagate with negative group velocities. We investigate the spatial mode properties and temporal reshaping of the fast light images, and show large relative pulse peak advancements of up to 64% of the input pulse width. The degree of temporal reshaping is quantified and increases as the relative pulse peak advancement increases. When optimized for image quality or pulse advancement, negative group velocities of up to v(g) = -c/880 and v(g) = -c/2180, respectively, are demonstrated when integrating temporally over the entire image. The present results are applicable to temporal cloaking devices that require strong manipulation of the dispersion relation, where one can envision temporally cloaking various spatial regions of an image for different durations. Additionally, the modes involved in a four-wave mixing process similar to the present experiment have been shown to exhibit quantum correlations and entanglement. The results presented here provide insight into how to tailor experimental tests of the behavior of these quantum correlations and entanglement in the superluminal regime. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America

Publication Details
Publication Type
Journal Article
Year of Publication
2012
Volume
20
Number of Pages
13702-13710
DOI
10.1364/oe.20.013702
Journal
Optics Express
Contributors