  Recently, the design of a white-light-cavity has been proposed using negative
dispersion in an intra-cavity medium to make the cavity resonate over a large
range of frequencies and still maintain a high cavity build-up. This paper
presents the demonstration of this effect in a free-space cavity. The negative
dispersion of the intra-cavity medium is caused by bi-frequency Raman gain in
an atomic vapor cell. A significantly broad cavity response over a bandwidth
greater than 20 MHz has been observed. The experimental results agree well with
the theoretical model, taking into account effects of residual absorption. A
key application of this device would be in enhancing the sensitivity-bandwidth
product of the next generation gravitational wave detectors that make use of
the so-called signal-recycling mirror.
