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Physical Review A

Near-resonant propagation of short pulses in a two-level medium

Xiangyang Yu, Wei Liu, Cheng Li

Published Sep 9, 2011• 10 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We present a numerical method for solving the Maxwell-Bloch equations describing pulse propagation for a two-level medium. The method is accurate, efficient, stable, and well suited for this type of simultaneous equations. By applying the numerical scheme we investigate the evolutions of pulse area, pulse propagation, pulse velocity, and spectral shapes under both homogeneous and inhomogeneous broadening conditions. The results show that the area evolution and pulse-reshaping procedure are significantly influenced by detuning and inhomogeneous line shape, which also impact the oscillation tail and pulse peak. In addition, the pulse-peak traces indicated the pulse velocity always increases with greater deviation in pulse-area value from the value 2\ensuremath{\pi}. We also demonstrate the pulse velocity increased for a larger detuning or a wider inhomogeneous line shape. Furthermore, the spectral feature shows that pulse spectra evolve into an oscillating shape.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.84.033811

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We present a numerical method for solving the Maxwell-Bloch equations describing pulse propagation for a two-level medium. The method is accurate, efficient, stable, and well suited for this type of simultaneous equations. By applying the numerical scheme we investigate the evolutions of pulse area, pulse propagation, pulse velocity, and spectral shapes under both homogeneous and inhomogeneous broadening conditions. The results show that the area evolution and pulse-reshaping procedure are significantly influenced by detuning and inhomogeneous line shape, which also impact the oscillation tail and pulse peak. In addition, the pulse-peak traces indicated the pulse velocity always increases with greater deviation in pulse-area value from the value 2\ensuremath{\pi}. We also demonstrate the pulse velocity increased for a larger detuning or a wider inhomogeneous line shape. Furthermore, the spectral feature shows that pulse spectra evolve into an oscillating shape.
An accurate and effective numerical method is presented to solve the Maxwell-Bloch equations that are used to describe the optical pulse propagation and interaction with inhomogeneously broadened two-level medium.The convergence and stability of this numerical method are proved by comparing with the analytic solutions and area theorem derived under special condition.The simulations of arbitrary conditions is discussed by employing this method and analyze the pulse evolution for different detunings,relaxation times and inhomogeneously broadened linewidthes.The established numerical method provides a good way to have further study about the coherent interaction of short optical pulses with resonant mediums,and can be used to solve the corrections of Maxwell-Bloch equations.
An effective 'Forecast-correction fourth-order Runge-Kutta' numerical method is programmed to study the propagation characteristics of ultra-short laser pulse in inhomogeneous broadening two-level medium.The results show that the pulse propagation can be modulated by the inhomogeneous broadening line-width.While the inhomogeneous broadening line-width is greater than the pulse spectrum width,the evolution of pulse area consists with the area theorem,and the pulse propagation maintains stability.With decreasing line-width,the evolution of pulse area becomes complex,and pulse propagation no longer maintains stability and with atailoscillation.The pulse peak and pulse propagation velocity can also be modulated by the line-width.
An accurate and effective numerical method is presented to solve the Maxwell-Bloch equations,which describe the optical pulse propagation and interaction with homogeneously broadened two-level medium.The convergence and stability of this numerical method are also proved by comparing with the analytic solutions derived under special condition,and the method maintains its erroneous exponents and is applicable.Simulations of arbitrary conditions are discussed by employing this new method,and the evolutions of pulse and Bloch vectors for different detunings,relaxation times and initial input pulse power are analyzed.The established numerical method can be used to solve the Maxwell-Bloch equations and their corrections.
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.
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.
We investigate the areas of extremely short, intense (area ⩾π) resonant optical pulses on propagation through an inhomogeneously broadened atomic medium. Experimentally, there is no apparent change in the shape of such pulses on propagation, in contradiction to the area theorem. Here we show that, although the main part of the pulse is unchanged for short propagation distances (αl∼1), it is followed by a long weak tail formed by free induction decay from the excited atoms. The tail lengthens and oscillates on propagation through the medium and permits the area theorem to be obeyed. These oscillations, which depend critically on the Doppler broadening, are reflected in the spectral analysis of the propagated pulse. We also introduce another mechanism for pulse reshaping, which is a generalization of the McCall–Hahn pulse breakup and operates at long propagation lengths (αl≫1), where the number of absorbing atoms encountered by the pulse is comparable with the number of photons in the pulse.