Slowing down of light pulses using backward-wave four-wave mixing with local response

The slowing down of light pulses is achieved using backward-wave four-wave mixing in a medium with local response. A Bi12TiO20 crystal with an external dc field is used in the experiment as a proof-of-concept material. The delay and shape transformation of output pulses are studied and compared for the transmitted and phase conjugate channels. It is shown that the phase conjugate pulse achieves a longer delay under typical experimental conditions with equal intensities of the pump beams. This advantage of the phase conjugate beam is especially pronounced for short pulses with half-widths smaller than the response time of the medium. The agreement of the experimental results with numerical c…