Formation of optical subcycle pulses and full Maxwell-Bloch solitary wavesby coherent propagation effects

We demonstrated thar optical subcycle pulses can be generated in dense medi a of two-level systems clue to pulse splitting and reshaping of pulses of a few optical-cycles time duration. Novel features in the spectral signature s of the pulses are predicted, a large blueshift in the transmitted and a l arge redshift in the reflected pulse, which are explained by intrapulse fou r-wave mixing. Solitary propagation phenomena in the full Maxwell-Bloch equ ations beyond the limits of slowly varying envelope and rotating-wave appro ximations are observed, e.g., the formation of solitary half-cycle pulses a nd two-soliton pulses.