Poynting vector, energy density and energy velocity in anomalous dispersion medium

Abstract

The Poynting vector, energy density and energy velocity of light pulses propagating in anomalous dispersion medium (used in WKD-like experiments) are calculated. Results show that a negative energy density in the medium propagates along opposite of incident direction with such a velocity similar to the negative group velocity while the direction of the Poynting vector is positive. In other words, one might say that a positive energy density in the medium would propagate along the positive direction with a speed having approximately the absolute valueof the group velocity. We further point out that neither energy velocity nor group velocity is a good concept to describe the propagation process of light pulse inside the medium in WKD experiment owing to the strong accumulation and dissipation effects.

6 pages

References in corpus (3)

• Transparent Anomalous Dispersion and Superluminal Light Pulse Propagation at a Negative Group Velocity
• Possibility of a Light Pulse with Speed Greater than c
• Has superluminal light propagation been observed?

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Optical Chirality in Dispersive and Lossy Media
• Lossless anomalous dispersion and an inversionless gain doublet via dressed interacting ground states (DIGS)
• New insight into light propagation and light-matter interactions with applications to experimental observations