Abstract
In this thesis, we study slow light in vertical cavity surface emitting laser. The slow light can apply in the optical communication, optical memories and signal processing. Various mechanisms have been used to achieve slow light. These include electromagnetically induced transparency, coherent population oscillations, Raman scattering, Brillouin scattering. In this thesis, we focus on coherent population oscillations. The process of coherent population oscillations leads to very slow propagation of light pulses and this can occur in room temperature solids. When a strong pump beam and a probe beam of slightly different frequencies interact in a material, the population of excited state will oscillate in time at beat frequency. Significant population beating occurs due to the time dependent interference between the optical fields of the pump and probe beams. It leads to a reduction of the absorption, which shows a coherent spectra hole in absorption spectrum. According to Kramers-Kronig relation, an absorption dip leads to a variation of refractive index spectrum with a positive slope in the same frequency range. Slow light occur here. Based on the two-wave model and carrier rate equation, we analyze the slow light effect in semiconductor optical amplifiers. The dependences of pumping power, injection current and wavelength detuning for group delays are evaluated. At the same time, we also considered the feature of surface emitting laser to join cavity effect in the theory. We can fit experimental data with reasonable parameters by this model.