Abstract

We show that light trapped in a linear cavity can be efficiently released into an ultrashort coherent pulse, using a non-resonant trigger pulse. We derive a simplified analytic description of the process and confirm its complex behavior by numerical simulation. This “Cavity Optical Pulse Extraction” (COPE) process is shown to be analogous to classical Hawking radiation emitted from an optical event horizon with extremely high Hawking temperature.

© 2013 Optical Society of America