Abstract
Analytic and numerical solutions of the Maxwell- Bloch equations, including transverse and time-dependent phase variations, predict on-resonance self-focusing and elucidate its formation due to the combined effects of diffraction and inertial response of the medium. This self-focusing can be characterized by a single parameter in terms of the beam and medium parameters. Recently, two independent experiments in sodium+ and neon++ demonstrated this new self-focusing effect of spatially non-uniform self-induced transparency pulses propagating in thick resonant absorbers. Comparison of the experimental results with the theoretical analysis will be presented.
The theoretical work reported here is part of a dissertation submitted by F.P. Matter in December 1975 as a partial fulfillment for the Ph. D. degree to Professor M.C. Newstein at the Department of Electiical Engineering and Electrophysics, polytechnic Institute of New York, Farmingdale, N.Y. 11735.
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Mattar, F.P., Newstein, M.C. (1977). Beam-Profile Effects in Self-Induced Transparency: On-Resonance Self-Focusing of Coherent Optical Pulses in Absorbing Media. In: Bowden, C.M., Howgate, D.W., Robl, H.R. (eds) Cooperative Effects in Matter and Radiation. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-2415-7_8
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