Experimental observation of optical precursors in optically pumped crystals

TL;DR

This paper reports the experimental observation of optical precursors in optically pumped crystals, demonstrating their potential as robust carriers for quantum and classical communication due to unchanged polarization states.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental evidence of optical precursors in optically pumped crystals and explores their stability across different dispersion regimes.

Findings

Optical precursors maintain polarization states during propagation.

Precursors are unaffected by dispersion regimes like fast and slow light.

Robust polarization encoding suggests potential for communication applications.

Abstract

We experimentally observed optical precursors in optically pumped crystals using polarization-based interference. By switching the user-programmable medium among the fast light, slow light and no-dispersion regimes, we observed an unchanged polarization states for the wavefronts. The robust polarization-encoded information carried by wavefronts suggests that precursors are the preferred carriers for both quantum and classical information in communication networks.