OPTICS OF INSTANTANEOUS WAVES
Résumé
This review is devoted to the transient optical phenomena, displayed both in the spatiotemporal dynamics of ultrashort single - cycle wave pulses in free space and dispersive dielectrics as well as to interaction of light with non-stationary media. The interplay of diffractive and dispersive phenomena, including the coupled processes of amplitude and phase reshaping, spectral variations, polarity reversal for different types of light pulses, is examined in frequency and time domains. Reflection - refraction effects on the interfaces of media with time-dependent dielectric susceptibility are considered by means of exact analytical solutions of Maxwell equations for these media. The non - stationarity - induced dispersion is shown to provide a dynamical regime of reflectivity of non-stationary media, depending upon both instantaneous dielectric susceptibility and its temporal derivative; the relevant generalization of Fresnel formulae is presented