Superluminal propagation of an optical pulse in a Doppler broadened three-state, single channel active Raman gain medium

Using a single channel active Raman gain medium we show a $(220\pm 20)$ns advance time for an optical pulse of $\tau_{FWHM}=15.4 \mu$s propagating through a 10 cm medium, a lead time that is comparable to what was reported previously. In addition, we have verified experimentally all the features associated with this single channel Raman gain system. Our results show that the reported gain-assisted superluminal propagation should not be attributed to the interference between the two frequencies of the pump field.