NONLINEAR PROPAGATION OF OPTICAL PULSES OF A FEW OSCILLATIONS DURATION IN DIELECTRIC MEDIA

Using a semi-phenomenological model of the polarization response of an isotropic solid dielectric that does not resort to the slowly-varying -envelope approximation, we have obtained a nonlinear wave equation fo r the electric field of a femtosecond light pulse propagating in the g iven dielectric. Evidence is presented that this equation possesses br eatherlike solutions in the region of anomalous group dispersion and d oes not have any solutions in the form of steady-state traveling solit ary video pulses. A universal relation is found linking the minimum po ssible duration of a breatherlike pulse with the medium parameters. It is shown that such a pulse contains roughly one and a half periods of the light-wave. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.