Slow and fast light propagation in nonlinear Kerr media.*

Sub- and superluminal propagation of light pulse in Kerr materials has been investigated. Group velocities as slow as much less than 1 millimeter per second to as fast as negative several hundreds meters per second can be easily obtained in Kerr medium, which possesses large nonlinear refractive index and long relaxation time, such as Cr doped Alexandrite, Ruby, and GdAlO3. The physical mechanism is the strong highly dispersive coupling between different frequency components of the pulse. The new mechanism of slowing down pulses as well as producing superluminal pulses enlarges the very specific materials to all kinds of nonlinear optical materials.