Slowing down light.(University of Southern California)(Brief article)

R & D, July, 2006

A joint team of researchers at the Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, and Duke Univ., Durham, N.C., have found a flexible way of slowing light in a controlled manner. The new system uses simple optical fiber and exploits the basic wave phenomenon of constructive interference: overlapping waves will "add" where both waves are high. If each wave in the fiber is traveling at a slightly different speed, the specific addition point will slow down relative to the original waves and thus slow the light.

Univ. of Southern California, www.usc.edu