Light-induced dispersion and its application in slow and fast light propagation

The slow and fast light propagation of a Gaussian pulse in Kerr like nonlinear optical materials have been investigated. We found that both the slow and fast light propagation was caused by the slow finite response of the nonlinear materials. Even far away from resonance, both normal and abnormal dispersions may be induced by a strong CW pump or by the pulse itself through two-wave mixing processes in the materials. Both the light-induced group velocity dispersion (GVD) and third-order dispersion (TOD), which leads to pulse distortion, have been studied.