Abstract

SBS generated in optical fiber is widely considered to be a promising and efficient room temperature approach towards realizing slow light fiber devices compatible with telecommunication needs [1]. Many experiments on slow light (SL) via SBS in optical fiber have now been published, in which delays for pulses of durations, t_p, from ~40 ps to ~100 ns were observed. All of these were interpreted through group index induced delay of the Stokes pulse. In this paper we show through analytic theory that there exist no conditions which can give rise to group index induced delay of the Stokes pulse. Rather the delay is that arising through gain build-up.

© 2009 IEEE