All-Optical Control of Light Group Velocity with a Cavity Optomechanical System

TL;DR

This paper proposes a theoretical method for controlling the speed of light in an optical cavity using a mechanical resonator, enabling switching between slow and fast light without specific material constraints.

Contribution

It introduces a novel all-optical control scheme for light group velocity in cavity optomechanical systems, independent of cavity materials.

Findings

Complete all-optical control of light velocity demonstrated theoretically.

Tunable switch between slow and fast light achieved by adjusting pump-cavity detuning.

Control mechanism relies on interaction between signal light and a mechanical resonator.

Abstract

We theoretically demonstrate complete all-optical control of light group velocity via a cavity optomechanical system composed of an optical cavity and a mechanical resonator. The realization depends on no specific materials inside the cavity, and the control of light group velocity stems from the interaction between the signal light and the moving optical diffraction grating within the cavity in analogy to the stimulated Brillouin scattering(SBS). Furthermore, we show that a tunable switch from slow light to fast light can be achieved only by simply adjusting the pump-cavity detuning. The scheme proposed here will open a novel way to control light velocity by all-optical methods in optomechanical systems.