Superluminal lasers (SLLs) have garnered significant attention over the past decade due to their potential to revolutionize precision measurements and metrology. These lasers operate under conditions where the group velocity exceeds the speed of light in vacuum. In this regime, the laser's spectral sensitivity to changes in the ambient parameters becomes significantly higher than that of conventional lasers, making SLLs highly attractive for various sensing applications, including gravitational wave detection, dark matter search, and navigation-grade rotation sensing. In this talk, I will first show different approaches we have developed to realize the gain and dispersion properties for superluminal lasers based on non-linear interaction of light with hot Rb atoms. Next, I will present how the implementation of this interaction within an optical cavity, and inducing lasing under such unique conditions, enhances the spectral sensitivity of the laser to perturbation, making it a promising candidate for ultrasensitive optical sensing. Finally, I will introduce a novel concept for the superluminal laser cavity design incorporating polarization-selective reflectors, which enable efficient coupling of the interaction beams into the cavity while minimizing losses for the lasing mode.

Yael Sternfeld obtained her BSc and MSc degrees in Physics from Tel Aviv University. Since 2021, she has been working on her PhD under the supervision of Prof Jacob Scheuer and collaborating closely with Prof Selim Shahriar from Northwestern University. Yael has been awarded the prestigious Rothschild fellowship for post-doctoral studies. She also received an excellent research prize from the physics department at Tel Aviv University, and she won the Electro-Optics fund competition of the physical electronic department for best master's thesis.