Abstract

We study the optical properties of negative dispersive but nevertheless transparent media. Such medium can be generated using atomic phase coherence. Theoretical studies have shown that strongly driven two level systems may exhibit the desired optical properties,^1,2 that is negative dispersion of a well defined amount at a point of vanishing absorption. When this medium is placed inside an optical resonator the linewidth is increased without sacrifying its build up.³ This cavity is also a real distance measurement device: fluctuations of the laser frequency used to measure the cavity length don't affect the measurement.

© 1999 Optical Society of America