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Physical Review A

Derivation of a generalized double-sine-Gordon equation describing ultrashort-soliton propagation in optical media composed of multilevel atoms

Hervé Leblond, Houria Triki, DUMITRU BOGDAN MIHALACHE

Published Dec 20, 2012• 26 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We consider the propagation of ultrashort optical solitons in media described by a general Hamiltonian of multilevel atoms. Assuming that all transition frequencies of the medium are well below the typical wave frequency, i.e., only the contribution of infrared transitions is taken into account, we use a short-wave approximation and a rigorous application of the reductive perturbation formalism to derive a cumbersome coupled system of nonlinear partial differential equations describing ultrashort soliton evolution in such systems. The rather complicated set of coupled equations can be simplified to a generic double-sine-Gordon equation for a special case of identical three-level atoms, whereas for a special case of identical four-level atoms the system of coupled equations can be reduced to a generalized double-sine-Gordon equation. Numerical simulations showing the formation of robust breather-type solutions of both the standard double-sine-Gordon and of the generalized double-sine-Gordon equations from sinusoidal inputs with Gaussian envelopes are also presented.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.86.063825

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We consider the propagation of ultrashort optical solitons in media described by a general Hamiltonian of multilevel atoms. Assuming that all transition frequencies of the medium are well below the typical wave frequency, i.e., only the contribution of infrared transitions is taken into account, we use a short-wave approximation and a rigorous application of the reductive perturbation formalism to derive a cumbersome coupled system of nonlinear partial differential equations describing ultrashort soliton evolution in such systems. The rather complicated set of coupled equations can be simplified to a generic double-sine-Gordon equation for a special case of identical three-level atoms, whereas for a special case of identical four-level atoms the system of coupled equations can be reduced to a generalized double-sine-Gordon equation. Numerical simulations showing the formation of robust breather-type solutions of both the standard double-sine-Gordon and of the generalized double-sine-Gordon equations from sinusoidal inputs with Gaussian envelopes are also presented.
We derive model equations for optical pulse propagation in a medium described by a two-level Hamiltonian, without the use of the slowly varying envelope approximation. Assuming that the resonance frequency of the two-level atoms is either well above or well below the inverse of the characteristic duration of the pulse, we reduce the propagation problem to a modified Korteweg--de Vries or a sine-Gordon equation. We exhibit analytical solutions of these equations which are rather close in shape and spectrum to pulses in the two-cycle regime produced experimentally, which shows that soliton-type propagation of the latter can be envisaged.
The Maxwell–Schrödinger equations describing the ultrashort laser pulse propagation in multilevel molecular media are shown to be analytically solvable and to reduce to nonlinear multisine-Gordon equations for certain models of the field–molecule system. Special cases of level schemes are shown to lead to soliton propagation. A numerical study is presented in order to examine the effect of nonresonant (virtual) transitions on pulse propagation and amplification in a three-level molecular system as a function of intensity and detuning.
We consider the propagation of few-cycle pulses (FCPs) beyond the slowly varying envelope approximation in media in which the dynamics of constituent atoms is described by a two-level Hamiltonian by taking into account the wave polarization. We consider the short-wave approximation, assuming that the resonance frequency of the two-level atoms is well below the inverse of the characteristic duration of the optical pulse. By using the reductive perturbation method (multiscale analysis), we derive from the Maxwell-Bloch-Heisenberg equations the governing evolution equations for the two polarization components of the electric field in the first order of the perturbation approach. We show that propagation of circularly polarized (CP) few-optical-cycle solitons is described by a system of coupled nonlinear equations, which reduces in the scalar case to the standard sine Gordon equation describing the dynamics of linearly polarized FCPs in the short-wave-approximation regime. By direct numerical simulations, we calculate the lifetime of CP FCPs, and we study the transition to two orthogonally polarized single-humped pulses as a generic route of their instability.
The propagation of ultrashort coherent light pulses through a resonant atomic medium, modelled by a two-quantum level of absorbers, is studied including the effects of level degeneracy. The governing equations, a sequence of n-tuple sine-Gordon (SG) equations, are solved by quadrature for the Q-transition, with an approximate method indicated for the (mathematically) more difficult P- and R- transitions. It is shown, in particular, that there is a surprisingly close relation between the usual SG equation and the double SG equation. A simple theorem is proved which shows that each travelling wave solution of the former immediately leads to a solution of the latter, which thus admits a restricted Backlund transformation. This direct solution of nonlinear dispersive equations, which apparently cannot be solved by the inverse method, has an interesting by-product: an approximate method for finding travelling wave solutions of relatively arbitrary Klein-Gordon equations.
Nonlinear regimes of two-component ultrashort pulse propagation through an array of anisotropic quantum systems are analyzed theoretically under conditions when the slowly varying envelope approximation is inapplicable. It is shown that if the spectral width of the pulse is much larger than the quantum transition frequency, then the dynamics of its ordinary component can be described by a modified sine-Gordon equation that belongs to the class of integrable models but has never been used in physical applications. It is shown that the extraordinary pulse component responsible for the dynamic Stark shift of the transition frequency is coupled to its ordinary component by an algebraic relation. The soliton solutions to the derived equation are classified. Depending on the pulse duration, the solutions have the form of 2π pulses (kinks and antikinks) or steady traveling 0π pulses having no counterparts in isotropic models (neutral kinks). Interactions between the medium and solitons of different types and soliton collisions are analyzed.
Propagation of broad-band ultimately short light pulses in a partially absorbing medium is analyzed in the framework of the three-level model. Nonlinear wave equations are obtained describing propagation of light pulses in media with quadratic (all three transitions are allowed) or cubic (one of the transitions is forbidden) nonlinearity in the range of optical transparency or with the sine-Gordon-type nonlinearity in the region of absorption. Using the averaged variational principle, the approximate solutions of equations in the form of unipolar soliton-like signals are found and conditions of their transverse stability are determined. A stable propagation of a broad-band pulse is shown to be possible under conditions when monochromatic signals exhibit self-focusing.