Transient dispersion and absorption in a V-shaped atomic system

We investigate the dynamical behavior of the dispersion and the absorption in a V-type three level atomic system. It is shown that in the presence of decay-induced interference the probe dispersion and absorption are phase dependent. We find that an incoherent pumping field provides an additional control parameter for switching the group velocity of a light pulse. The required switching times for switching the group velocity of a probe field from subluminal to superluminal pulse propagation is then discussed.