Coherent On-Resonance Self-Focusing of Optical Pulses in Absorbers

Abstract

Self-focusing of spatially nonuniform coherent pulses has been seen in the center of Na and Ne transitions. Self-focusing and temporal reshaping were studied as a function of laser detuning in Na. The dependence of on-resonance self-focusing upon input pulse area was observed in Ne. Numerical solutions of the Maxwell-Bloch equations including transverse variations predict coherent self-focusing and yield a single parameter for estimating its importance for a given beam diameter and sample absorption.