What makes Bose Einstein condensates so effective at slowing/stopping light?

[the riddick25]

I was just wondering what properties of bose einstein condensates allows them to slow/stop light so well.
cant find much on the internet about it, tho i am probably looking in the wrong places, so if anyone could give me links that would be useful

Thanks


Also, this isn't homework, I'm just interested in the subject and have been reading up about it

 

[Bill_K]

For a simple answer ("It has an incredibly large index of refraction") see here:
http://www.jupiterscientific.org/sciinfo/slowlight.html

For a complicated answer ("The index of refraction varies rapidly near the resonant frequency of the two-photon Rabi oscillation.") see here:
http://www.pi5.uni-stuttgart.de/mitarbeiter/loew/LoewDipl.pdf (around p.19)