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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE

Propagation and amplification of ultrashort light pulses in a resonant two-level medium: finite-difference time-domain analysis

A.V. Tarasishin, Sergey A. Magnitskii, Aleksei M. Zheltikov

Published May 31, 2002• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Propagation and amplification of an ultrashort laser pulse in a two-level medium is numerically investigated with the use of the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) procedure simultaneously solving Maxwell and Schrodinger equations with no assumptions characteristic of slowly varying envelope approximation. Comparison of the results of FDTD numerical simulations with the predictions of the pulse area theorem has demonstrated that the developed numerical procedure provides an adequate description of pulse evolution in a two-level medium. Amplification of ultrashort light pulses in a two-level medium is analyzed. Two methods of improving the gain of ultrashort pulses in a two-level medium by modulating the spatial distribution of dipole moments of resonant transitions and using initially chirped frequency-detuned pulses are explored.

DOI
10.1117/12.469120

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Propagation and amplification of an ultrashort laser pulse in a two-level medium is numerically investigated with the use of the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) procedure simultaneously solving Maxwell and Schrodinger equations with no assumptions characteristic of slowly varying envelope approximation. Comparison of the results of FDTD numerical simulations with the predictions of the pulse area theorem has demonstrated that the developed numerical procedure provides an adequate description of pulse evolution in a two-level medium. Amplification of ultrashort light pulses in a two-level medium is analyzed. Two methods of improving the gain of ultrashort pulses in a two-level medium by modulating the spatial distribution of dipole moments of resonant transitions and using initially chirped frequency-detuned pulses are explored.
The finite-difference time-domain technique is employed to examine the evolution of the amplitude, duration, waveform, and phase of ultrashort light pulses propagating in a medium of two-level atoms or molecules. The results of these numerical simulations agree reasonably well with predictions of the McCall-Hahn analysis for the evolution of the amplitude and the phase of short pulses in a two-level medium until the pulse duration becomes less than the duration of a single optical cycle. Noticeable deviations from the McCall-Hahn scenario were observed for pulses with durations shorter than the duration of a single field cycle.
The semiclassical Maxwell–Bloch equations beyond the slowly varying envelope approximation (SVEA) are derived in order to study the propagation of the ultrashort pulse in a two-level medium. The evolutions of the pulse shape, the group velocity and the pulse peak of 2[Formula: see text] ultrashort pulse are investigated as well as the pulse splitting of 4[Formula: see text] ultrashort pulse. By comparing the numerical results with those obtained using the SVEA, the error introduced by the approximation is quantitatively evaluated with respect to the pulse width and the applicable condition of the SVEA is discussed consequently. The envelope solutions presented by us allow clear observation on the evolution of the envelope.
Recent progress in ultrafast technology has led to the generation of optical pulses as short as 8 fs. The propagation of such short pulses in nonlinear optical media requires new computational techniques in which the standard approximations such as the slowly-varying envelope approximation (SVEA) and rotating-wave approximation (RWA) are not made while using the Maxwell-Bloch equations [1]. Previous calculations, which used the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method, found that for a a Kerr-like instantaneous nonlinearity [2] significant differences can occur when the full vector Maxwell equations are used instead of the nonlinear Schrodinger equation. Recently, the FDTD method has been extended to the case of a homogeneously broadened two-level atomic system [3].
A technique for the numerical simulation of coherent optical responses of the photon echo type formed in resonance media with strong inhomogeneous broadening under the action of femtosecond laser pulses is developed. This approach is based on solving the Maxwell-Bloch equations using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method without application of a fast rotating field and slowly varying envelope approximations. The method can be used to simulate coherent responses in different resonance media with a complex structure of energy levels. The technique was validated using the example of describing experiments on narrowing a photon echo pulse and femtosecond echo processing.
We solve the problem of ultrashort pulse propagation in a two-level medium beyond the rotating-wave (RWA) and slowly varying-envelope approximations. The method of solution is based on the Maxwell-Bloch equations represented in the form that allows one to switch between RWA and general (non-RWA) cases in the framework of a single numerical algorithm. Using this method, the effect of a subcycle pulse (containing less than a single period of field oscillations) on the two-level medium was analyzed. It is shown that for such short pulses, the clear breakdown of the area theorem occurs for the pulses of large enough area. Moreover, deviations from the area theorem appear to be strongly dependent on the pulse shape that cannot be observed for longer few-cycle pulses.