Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Laser Physics Letters

Origin of unipolar half-cycle pulses generation in inversion symmetric media

Xiaohong Song, Zhizhen Hao, Ming Yan, Miaoli Wu, Weifeng Yang

Published Sep 16, 2015• 15 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We investigate the physical mechanism of unipolar half-cycle pulses generation in resonant two-level media with inversion symmetry. The unipolar half-cycle pulse contains substantial nonzero dc or zero-frequency component in its Fourier spectrum of the electric field. Here the origin of zero-frequency component generation in inversion symmetric media driven by symmetric electric field is identified. We show that in the regime of extreme nonlinear optics, i.e. the Rabi frequency is comparable to or even larger than the carrier frequency of the laser pulse, the time evolution of the polarization can display obvious up-down asymmetric structure under certain conditions, which manifests in the zero-frequency component generation, and is responsible for the formation of unipolar half-cycle pulses in the course of pulse propagation.

DOI
10.1088/1612-2011/12/10/105003

Related papers

Half-cycle dissipative solitons in a multilevel resonant medium

A. V. Pakhomov

We theoretically investigate the possibility of the formation of subcycle dissipative solitons propagating in a multilevel resonant medium. We examine the case when the duration of light pulses is significantly smaller than the periods of resonant transitions in the medium. Within such an approximation, a nonlinear integro-differential equation describing the spatiotemporal evolution of the electric field was derived. We demonstrate that in the case of a preexcited medium, this equation has solutions in the form of stable half-cycle unipolar dissipative solitons with the parameters determined by the medium properties. The obtained results can provide an important step towards the efficient transmission of subcycle pulses through optical media.

Physical Review A•Jan 22, 2025•3 citations

Interaction of a Rectangular Unipolar Pulse with a Two-Level Resonant Medium

Rostislav M. Arkhipov, Nikolay N. Rosanov

Abstract The interest in unipolar pulses in optics is related to the possibility of their efficient action on quantum objects. In this work, we study the interaction of a short rectangular unipolar pulse with a two-level resonant medium under conditions that the pulse duration is shorter than the relaxation times of the medium. It is paradoxical that the polarization and the population difference of the medium oscillate not at the Rabi frequency, but, rather, at a frequency that is proportional to the sum of the squared frequency of the resonant transition of the medium and the squared Rabi frequency of the pulse. This phenomenon is similar to the Stark effect, which consists of a shift of the transition frequencies of a medium in a constant external electric field. The possibility of generating radiation at frequencies that exceed the resonant transition frequency of the medium upon its excitation by a rectangular unipolar pulse is discussed.

Optics and Spectroscopy•May 1, 2020•2 citations

Tailoring the waveshape of optical unipolar pulses in a multi-level resonant medium

A. V. Pakhomov, Nikolay N. Rosanov, Mikhail V. Arkhipov +1 more

We theoretically demonstrate the possibility to tune the temporal waveform of optical unipolar pulses upon their coherent interaction with a multi-level resonant medium. This is achieved through the coherent control of the response of a multi-level resonant medium by means of half-cycle unipolar pulses. We show that despite the ultrabroad spectrum of half-cycle pulses one can efficiently steer the induced medium polarization through the proper choice of the parameters of the excitation pulses. As the result, producing of unipolar optical pulses of varying profile, like rectangular or triangular ones, from an extended layer of a multi-layer medium was obtained when excited by a pair of half-cycle pulses. Besides, we find out that the response of a multi-level medium for the amplitude of the driving pulses below a certain threshold can be quantitatively well approximated by the two-level model.

arXiv:2303.11116•Mar 20, 2023•1 citation

Media of asymmetric atomic systems as low-frequency radiation sources.

Piotr Gładysz, Karolina Słowik

If a two-level atomic system characterized by inversion symmetry in space is coupled to a classical electromagnetic field, it undergoes Rabi oscillations where the population flips between the ground and excited levels. We investigate a scenario, where a system of broken inversion symmetry is used instead. In such case the dynamics is modified for the following reason: Eigenstates of an asymmetric system can be characterized with a permanent electric dipole moment originating from the polarization of charges, which plays a significant role of an additional source of dipole radiation. Its frequency corresponds to the Rabi frequency of population transfer between the eigenstates and therefore is optically tunable with the intensity of the driving field. We construct the numerical solver to simulate the medium of such asymmetric systems driven by the laser beam and by the Bloch-Maxwell equations calculate the generated radiation's propagation.

Terahertz Emitters, Receivers, and Applications•Aug 20, 2020•0 citations

All-optical control of unipolar pulse generation in a resonant medium with nonlinear field coupling

A. V. Pakhomov, Rostislav M. Arkhipov, Ihar Babushkin +3 more

We study the optical response of a resonant medium possessing nonlinear coupling to an external field driven by a few-cycle pump pulse sequence. We demonstrate the possibility of directly producing unipolar half-cycle pulses from the medium possessing an arbitrary nonlinearity, by choosing the proper pulse-to-pulse distance of the pump pulses in the sequence. We examine various ways of shaping the medium response using different geometrical configurations of nonlinear oscillators and different wavefront shapes for the excitation pulse sequence. Our approach defines a general framework to produce unipolar pulses of controllable form.

arXiv:1610.01529•Physical Review A•Jan 3, 2017•73 citations

Superradiance of an Extended Resonant Medium Excited by Half-Cycle Attosecond Pulses

A. V. Pakhomov, Mikhail V. Arkhipov, Nikolay N. Rosanov +1 more

Here we demonstrate an unusual type of superradiance in an extended layer of a two-level medium excited by a pair of unipolar pulses. It is shown that, due to the interference of secondary waves emitted by the resonant medium, the response of such a layer in reflection represents a pair of half-cycle unipolar pulses of different polarity. They follow with a time delay proportional to the layer thickness. The source of such superradiance is a monopolar half-cycle pulse of the stopped polarization induced by the first excitation pulse and switched off by the second excitation pulse. The predicted effect can be used to control the shape of few- and subcycle pulses in resonant media.

Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics Letters•Jul 25, 2022•8 citations
We investigate the physical mechanism of unipolar half-cycle pulses generation in resonant two-level media with inversion symmetry. The unipolar half-cycle pulse contains substantial nonzero dc or zero-frequency component in its Fourier spectrum of the electric field. Here the origin of zero-frequency component generation in inversion symmetric media driven by symmetric electric field is identified. We show that in the regime of extreme nonlinear optics, i.e. the Rabi frequency is comparable to or even larger than the carrier frequency of the laser pulse, the time evolution of the polarization can display obvious up-down asymmetric structure under certain conditions, which manifests in the zero-frequency component generation, and is responsible for the formation of unipolar half-cycle pulses in the course of pulse propagation.
We theoretically investigate the possibility of the formation of subcycle dissipative solitons propagating in a multilevel resonant medium. We examine the case when the duration of light pulses is significantly smaller than the periods of resonant transitions in the medium. Within such an approximation, a nonlinear integro-differential equation describing the spatiotemporal evolution of the electric field was derived. We demonstrate that in the case of a preexcited medium, this equation has solutions in the form of stable half-cycle unipolar dissipative solitons with the parameters determined by the medium properties. The obtained results can provide an important step towards the efficient transmission of subcycle pulses through optical media.
Abstract The interest in unipolar pulses in optics is related to the possibility of their efficient action on quantum objects. In this work, we study the interaction of a short rectangular unipolar pulse with a two-level resonant medium under conditions that the pulse duration is shorter than the relaxation times of the medium. It is paradoxical that the polarization and the population difference of the medium oscillate not at the Rabi frequency, but, rather, at a frequency that is proportional to the sum of the squared frequency of the resonant transition of the medium and the squared Rabi frequency of the pulse. This phenomenon is similar to the Stark effect, which consists of a shift of the transition frequencies of a medium in a constant external electric field. The possibility of generating radiation at frequencies that exceed the resonant transition frequency of the medium upon its excitation by a rectangular unipolar pulse is discussed.
We theoretically demonstrate the possibility to tune the temporal waveform of optical unipolar pulses upon their coherent interaction with a multi-level resonant medium. This is achieved through the coherent control of the response of a multi-level resonant medium by means of half-cycle unipolar pulses. We show that despite the ultrabroad spectrum of half-cycle pulses one can efficiently steer the induced medium polarization through the proper choice of the parameters of the excitation pulses. As the result, producing of unipolar optical pulses of varying profile, like rectangular or triangular ones, from an extended layer of a multi-layer medium was obtained when excited by a pair of half-cycle pulses. Besides, we find out that the response of a multi-level medium for the amplitude of the driving pulses below a certain threshold can be quantitatively well approximated by the two-level model.
If a two-level atomic system characterized by inversion symmetry in space is coupled to a classical electromagnetic field, it undergoes Rabi oscillations where the population flips between the ground and excited levels. We investigate a scenario, where a system of broken inversion symmetry is used instead. In such case the dynamics is modified for the following reason: Eigenstates of an asymmetric system can be characterized with a permanent electric dipole moment originating from the polarization of charges, which plays a significant role of an additional source of dipole radiation. Its frequency corresponds to the Rabi frequency of population transfer between the eigenstates and therefore is optically tunable with the intensity of the driving field. We construct the numerical solver to simulate the medium of such asymmetric systems driven by the laser beam and by the Bloch-Maxwell equations calculate the generated radiation's propagation.
We study the optical response of a resonant medium possessing nonlinear coupling to an external field driven by a few-cycle pump pulse sequence. We demonstrate the possibility of directly producing unipolar half-cycle pulses from the medium possessing an arbitrary nonlinearity, by choosing the proper pulse-to-pulse distance of the pump pulses in the sequence. We examine various ways of shaping the medium response using different geometrical configurations of nonlinear oscillators and different wavefront shapes for the excitation pulse sequence. Our approach defines a general framework to produce unipolar pulses of controllable form.
Here we demonstrate an unusual type of superradiance in an extended layer of a two-level medium excited by a pair of unipolar pulses. It is shown that, due to the interference of secondary waves emitted by the resonant medium, the response of such a layer in reflection represents a pair of half-cycle unipolar pulses of different polarity. They follow with a time delay proportional to the layer thickness. The source of such superradiance is a monopolar half-cycle pulse of the stopped polarization induced by the first excitation pulse and switched off by the second excitation pulse. The predicted effect can be used to control the shape of few- and subcycle pulses in resonant media.