Simple scheme for realizing fast light with low distortion in optical fibers

In a previous paper (Song et al., 2005) we reported the first experimental demonstration of pulse advancement with gain in optical fibers using stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS). We tested the two methods described above to achieve gain-assisted fast light and demonstrated experimentally that the method based on the double Brillouin gain peak produces pulse advancement with lower distortion. However, the distortion achieved in these experiments was still far from ideal, and the underlying scientific challenge to produce fast light with negligible distortion remains intact. In this paper we propose a simple scheme for achieving fast light with low distortion, based on the unique and flexible properties of Brillouin amplification. We demonstrate experimentally that this scheme delivers better results than the previously reported ones.