Active chromatic control on the group velocity of light at arbitrary wavelength in benzocyclobutene polymer

Abstract

A novel method is proposed to generate slow and fast lights at arbitrary signal wavelength in benzocyclobutene (BCB) polymer, which eliminates the requirement on the optical nonlinearity or the resonant effect at the signal wavelength with the help of the thermo-optic nonlinear effect induced by a control beam at a different but fixed wavelength. The signal group velocity can be precisely tuned simply by scanning the position of the BCB sample along the light propagation direction. Another advantage is the ability to control chromatically the group velocity of the signal beam by adjusting the control beam in the BCB sample, which, in essence, is to control the refractive index change experienced by the signal beam. This method provides an active chromatic control on the group velocity of light at arbitrary signal wavelength and therefore may have important potential applications in optical communication network and optical information processing.