https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-025-06703-4
Regular Article
Enhancement in superluminal propagation and tunability from superluminal to subluminal propagation of a light pulse by heat loss and heat gain
1
Department of Applied Physical and Material Sciences, University of Swat, 19120, Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
2
Department of Physics, Quaid-e-Azam University, 44000, Islamabad, Pakistan
a
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Received:
6
April
2025
Accepted:
31
July
2025
Published online:
16
August
2025
Abstract
The subluminal and superluminal propagation of a light pulse has been investigated under the conditions of heat gain and heat loss in a four-level sodium atomic medium. We found a significant enhancement in the superluminal propagation of light with heat gain and heat loss. The negative group index is increased from − 9500 to − 14,000 and shifted to the positive/negative detuning region at heat gain/loss of 
. The superluminal group velocity increases from 
to 
along with a shift to the positive/negative detuning region at a heat gain/loss of . The superluminal propagation is tuned to subluminal propagation with variation in control field Rabi frequencies. Furthermore, the subluminality is also enhanced with heat gain/loss and the collective phase of the control coupled driving fields. These findings may be useful in computer processing and medical imaging.
Copyright comment Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2025
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
