Superluminal and Ultraslow Light Propagation in Optomechanical Systems

Abstract: We consider an optomechanical double-ended cavity under the action of a coupling laser and a probe laser in electromagnetically induced transparency configuration. It is shown how the group delay and advance of the probe field can be controlled by the power of the coupling field. In contrast to single-ended cavities, only allowing for superluminal propagation, possibility of both superluminal and subluminal propagation regimes are found. The magnitudes of the group delay and the advance are calculated to be 1ms and -2s, respectively, at a very low pumping power of a few microwatts. In addition, interaction of the optomechanical cavity with a time dependent probe field is investigated for controlled excitations of mirror vibrations.