Slowdown and speedup of light pulses using the self-compensating photorefractive response

We study theoretically the effects of pulse slowdown and speedup in ferroelectric Sn2P2S6 possessing a self-compensating photorefractive response. It is shown that both these effects can be implemented in one sample for sufficiently large values of the coupling strength. In contrast to other types of the photorefractive response (local and nonlocal), the output pulses do not suffer from strong spatial amplification and broadening. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America