| Abstract: |
| About two decades ago, an optical pulse traveling at the speed of a bicycle was observed in a ruby crystal. This pulse was modeled by two-level Maxwell-Bloch equations. However, a theoretical explanation on whether the pulse slowed down or traveled slowly since its injection in the crystal was missing. We present a computational study of the corresponding damped Maxwell-Bloch system explaining how the dynamics crucially depend on the amount of damping. We show that the pulse starts propagating slowly, and would eventually reach the speed of light in a longer crystal. |
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