Resonant light delay in GaN with ballistic and diffusive propagation

Phys Rev Lett. 2008 Feb 29;100(8):087402. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.087402. Epub 2008 Feb 26.

Abstract

We report on a strong delay in light propagation through bulk GaN, detected by time-of-flight spectroscopy. The delay increases resonantly as the photon energy approaches the energy of a neutral-donor bound exciton (BX), resulting in a velocity of light as low as 2100 km/s. In the close vicinity of the BX resonance, the transmitted light contains both ballistic and diffusive components. This phenomenon is quantitatively explained in terms of optical dispersion in a medium where resonant light scattering by the BX resonance takes place in addition to the polariton propagation.