Collapse of ultrashort spatiotemporal pulses described by the cubic generalized Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation

Hervé Leblond (1) , David Kremer (1) , Dumitru Mihalache (2, 3)

1 POMA - Propriétés Optiques des Matériaux et Applications
2 Institute of Atomic Physics
3 NIPNE - Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering

By using a reductive perturbation method, we derive from Maxwell-Bloch equations a cubic generalized Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation for ultrashort spatiotemporal optical pulse propagation in cubic (Kerr-like) media without the use of the slowly varying envelope approximation. We calculate the collapse threshold for the propagation of few-cycle spatiotemporal pulses described by the generic cubic generalized Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation by a direct numerical method and compare it to analytic results based on a rigorous virial theorem. Besides, typical evolution of the spectrum (integrated over the transverse spatial coordinate) is given and a strongly asymmetric spectral broadening of ultrashort spatiotemporal pulses during collapse is evidenced.

Mots clés: Optical solitons; nonlinear guided waves; Ultrafast processes; optical pulse generation and pulse compression; Solitons

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]

Hervé Leblond, David Kremer, Dumitru Mihalache. Collapse of ultrashort spatiotemporal pulses described by the cubic generalized Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation. Physical Review A : Atomic, molecular, and optical physics [1990-2015], 2010, 81, pp.33824. ⟨10.1103/PHYSREVA.81.033824⟩. ⟨hal-00562195⟩