The propagation of an extremely short (one cycle) pulse of an electromagnetic field in a medium with two equilibrium states is considered theoretically. The analysis is based on the set of Maxwell equations and the Landau-Khalatnikov equation, in which the approximations of the slowly varying envelopes are not used. The solutions of this set that describe the steady-state propagation of a solitary polarization wave and electromagnetic pulse are found. In the approximation of unidirectional wave, a numerical simulation of the solitary waves propagation and interaction is performed in terms of the model considered. The switching phenomena in thin ferroelectric films were considered in framework of the numerical simulation.

Date Published: 25 April 2006
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 6187, Photon Management II, 61871M (25 April 2006); doi: 10.1117/12.661957

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6187:
Photon Management II
John T. Sheridan; Frank Wyrowski, Editor(s)