Journal of the Optical Society of America B
Coherent pulse propagation in a resonant absorber with Kerr-type nonlinearity
Ljubomir Matulic, G. E. Torres-Cisneros, Javier J. Sanchez-Mondragon
Abstract
We present a numerical study of the non-steady-state pulse propagation in a resonant inhomogeneously broadened absorber embedded in a dielectric medium with a Kerr-type nonlinearity. We find that the individual atomic dipoles are dephased and that their evolution depends on their detunings. We think that this is the reason for small energy losses that prevent the pulse from attaining a truly steady-state nature. We discuss the implications of this result in relation to previous studies. Our results point to the existence of near-steady-state Kerr pulses, similar to the ideal solitons.