Issues

 / 

2004

 / 

October

  

Methodological notes


A fairy tale of stopped light

 a,  b
a Ioffe Institute, ul. Polytekhnicheskaya 26, St. Petersburg, 194021, Russian Federation
b Department of Physics, St. Petersburg State University, Petrodvorets, St. Petersburg, 198904, Russian Federation

It is shown that the sensational interpretation of the experiments described in the paper ’Storage of light in atomic vapor’ by Phillips D F et al. Phys. Rev. Lett., 2001, v. 76, p. 783 is erroneous. The observations made in this work are easily explained in the framework of standard concepts of the light-induced anisotropy of an ensemble of atoms amenable to optical orientation and alignment. The response of the atomic medium detected by Phillips et al. has nothing to do with the authors’ claims about ’storage of light’, ’dynamic reduction of the group velocity of light’, or ’compression of the light pulse’. This paper is an extended version of our critical comment rejected by Physical Review Letters.

Fulltext pdf (152 KB)
Fulltext is also available at DOI: 10.1070/PU2004v047n10ABEH002023
PACS: 42.25.Ja, 42.50.Gy (all)
DOI: 10.1070/PU2004v047n10ABEH002023
URL: https://ufn.ru/en/articles/2004/10/d/
000226730200004
2004PhyU...47.1033A
Citation: Aleksandrov E B, Zapasskii V S "A fairy tale of stopped light" Phys. Usp. 47 1033–1036 (2004)
BibTexBibNote ® (generic)BibNote ® (RIS)MedlineRefWorks

Оригинал: Александров Е Б, Запасский В С «Легенда об остановленном свете» УФН 174 1105–1108 (2004); DOI: 10.3367/UFNr.0174.200410e.1105

References (8) Cited by (15) Similar articles (12) ↓

  1. V.S. Zapasskii “On electromagnetically induced transparency in the degenerate Λ-schemePhys. Usp. 52 179–181 (2009)
  2. K.Yu. Bliokh, Yu.P. Bliokh “What are the left-handed media and what is interesting about them?Phys. Usp. 47 393–400 (2004)
  3. B.M. Bolotovskii, S.N. Stolyarov “Reflection of light from a moving mirror and related problemsSov. Phys. Usp. 32 813–827 (1989)
  4. N.Ya. Molotkov “Two demonstration experiments with three-centimeter electromagnetic wavesSov. Phys. Usp. 14 216–218 (1971)
  5. D.I. Sakharov “Experiments on refraction and reflection of polarized lightSov. Phys. Usp. 4 521–522 (1961)
  6. S.V. Sazonov “Superluminal electromagnetic solitons in nonequilibrium mediaPhys. Usp. 44 631–644 (2001)
  7. A.N. Oraevskii “Superluminal waves in amplifying mediaPhys. Usp. 41 1199–1209 (1998)
  8. V.G. Veselago “Formulating Fermat’s principle for light traveling in negative refraction materialsPhys. Usp. 45 1097–1099 (2002)
  9. E.H. Lock “The properties of isofrequency dependences and the laws of geometrical opticsPhys. Usp. 51 375–393 (2008)
  10. A.P. Vinogradov, A.V. Dorofeenko, S. Zouhdi “On the problem of the effective parameters of metamaterialsPhys. Usp. 51 485–492 (2008)
  11. V.E. Ogluzdin “Photons traveling at the speed of light in a two-level atomic medium as a source of Cherenkov radiation conesPhys. Usp. 47 829–832 (2004)
  12. E.G. Drukarev “Atomic physics: computer calculations and theoretical analysisPhys. Usp. 50 835–845 (2007)

The list is formed automatically.

© 1918–2024 Uspekhi Fizicheskikh Nauk
Email: ufn@ufn.ru Editorial office contacts About the journal Terms and conditions