Slow light in Doppler-broadened two-level systems

Abstract

We show that the propagation of light in a Doppler-broadened medium can be slowed down considerably even though such medium exhibits very flat dispersion. The slowing down is achieved by the application of a saturating counter propagating beam that produces a hole in the inhomogeneous line shape. In atomic vapors, we calculate group indices of the order of 10³. The calculations include all coherence effects.