title: Control of light pulse propagation with only a few cold atoms in a high-finesse microcavity.
abstract: Propagation of a light pulse through a high-Q optical microcavity containing a few cold atoms (N<10) in its cavity mode is investigated experimentally. With less than ten cold rubidium atoms launched into an optical microcavity, up to 170 ns propagation lead time ("superluminal"), and 440 ns propagation delay time (subluminal) are observed. Comparison of the experimental data with numerical simulations as well as future experiments are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physics, University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan. shimizu-yukiko@aist.go.jp
authors.forename: Yukiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shimizu
authors.forename: Noritsugu
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shiokawa
authors.forename: Noriaki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: Mikio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kozuma
authors.forename: Takahiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kuga
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.forename: E W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Hagley