Superluminal Optical Phase Conjugation: Pulse Reshaping and Instability

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the response of optical phase conjugators to incident probe pulses. In the stable (sub-threshold) operating regime of an optical phase conjugator it is possible to transmit probe pulses with a superluminally advanced peak, whereas conjugate reflection is always subluminal. In the unstable (above-threshold) regime, superluminal response occurs both in reflection and in transmission, at times preceding the onset of exponential growth due to the instability.

9 pages, 6 figures, RevTex, to appear in Phys. Rev. A