Steep optical wave group velocity reduction and storage of light without electromagnetically induced transparency

We report experimental investigationd of optical pulse group velocity reduction and probe pulse regeneration using a Raman scheme. The new scheme which does not rely on the on-one-photon resonance electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), has many advantages over the conventional method which critically relys on the transparency window created by an EIT process. We demonstrate significant reduction of group velocity, less probe field loss, reduced probe pulse distortion, and high probe pulse regeneration efficiency.