Optical knobs from slow- to fast-light with gain in low-dimensional semiconductor heterostructures

The light pulse propagation through semiconductor quantum-well heterostructures under realistic experimental conditions is studied analytically with the Schrödinger equations. It is shown that slow light and superluminal propagation with gain can be observed by varying the relative phase and the strength of the applied fields. Such investigation may open up the possibility to control the light propagation and may lead to potential applications such as high-fidelity optical delay lines, optical buffers and optical communication in quantum wells solid materials.