Slow-light analogue with a ladder of RLC circuits

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a slow-light analogue using a ladder of RLC circuits, showing how cascading resonant circuits can produce significant group delays similar to atomic slow-light phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces a novel RLC circuit ladder setup to emulate slow-light effects, bridging atomic physics concepts with electrical circuit analogues.

Findings

Observed a transparency window with surrounding absorption lines.

Achieved large group delays comparable to pulse durations.

Validated the slow-light analogue through experimental circuit responses.

Abstract

The linear susceptibility of an atomic sample is formally equivalent to the response of a RLC circuit. We use a ladder of lumped RLC circuits to observe an analogue of slow-light, a well-known phenomenon in atomic physics. We first characterize the radio-frequency response of the circuit in the spectral domain exhibiting a transparency window surrounded by two strongly absorptive lines. We then observe a delayed pulse whose group delay is comparable to the pulse duration corresponding to slow-light propagation. The large group delay is obtained by cascading in a ladder configuration doubly resonant RLC cells.