Comment on "Direct Observation of Optical Precursors in a Region of Anomalous Dispersion"

Bruno Macke (1) , Bernard Ségard (1)

1 PhLAM - Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers, Atomes et Molécules - UMR 8523

We show that the optical transients recently read as "Sommerfeld-Brillouin precursors" by Jeong, Dawes and Gauthier are not identifiable with optical precursors (unless one considers that any coherent transient propagating in a dilute medium at the velocity c is an optical precursor) and that they can be interpreted in very simple physical terms.

Mots clés: optical precursors

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]

Bruno Macke, Bernard Ségard. Comment on "Direct Observation of Optical Precursors in a Region of Anomalous Dispersion". 2006. ⟨hal-00023692v3⟩