Dynamical Slowing and trapping of light in coupled semiconductor laser arrays

We propose and analyze a new scheme for storing and releasing optical pulses comprising an array of weakly coupled semiconductor lasers. By activating and deactivating individual lasers in the array we are able to manipulate optical pulses, trap them for long periods and release them without noticeable distortion. In addition, the proposed scheme can also regenerate and reshape distorted pulses all-optically. Additional applications such as routing, pulse synchronization and true-time-delaying are also presented and discussed.