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OPTICS LETTERS
1, 1992
The influence of normal group-velocity dispersion on the self-focusing of light pulses is numerically studied. Temporal splitting of the field envelope is observed when the critical power is exceeded along with diffraction of the spatially sharpened central part of the pulse. Dispersion increases considerably the self-focusing threshold for short pulse durations.
The close analogy between diffraction and groupvelocity dispersion when they act simultaneously with Kerr-type nonlinearity is a well-known phenomenon.' It is demonstrated when steady-state self-focusing and plane-wave propagation in a nonlinear dispersive medium are studied. It has been recently shown2 that in the anomalous-dispersion region the temporal-spatial effect becomes simple
3 (AO d2 no/dA02)/2irC2 ],
2 and the nonlinear length LNL = no/kLn %0 , with n2 2 the nonlinear part of the index of refraction n = 2. no + n2 IWI The dimensionless parameters a and /3 in Eq. (1) are defined as
a=
LDF/LDS,
/3 =
LDF/LNL.
(3)
We note that the parameter ,3 is proportional to the ratio of the input power to the critical power for selffocusing. If this ratio p is derived from numerical steady-state calculations of self-focusing of Gaussian spatial beams,' then p = P/1.885. We prefer to use
4ia/la-
2aa2/a7)2 )u
2 + 4,B1u1 u =
0,
(1)
where u = i/%o,
p = r/wo, = Z/LDF, and -j = (t - z/vg)/ro are normalized quantities so that the initial pulse is given by
2 u(; = 0) = exp(-7) _ p2).
(2)
The local time 7) (vg is the group velocity) is normalized to To, which corresponds to the initial exp(-1) level of the field amplitude. The radial coordinate
173
VI
the given value of p is possible if the radial confinement of the beam is neglected. This can be done by using the analytical results for dispersive broadening of a plane wave by estimation of the critical point
causes temporal splitting, from Figs. 3 and 4. This gives a rather rough approximation, but it seems justified since the radial dimensions in Figs. 3 and 4 are modified by a factor of <2 before and if temporal splitting takes place. The self-focusing distance (SF is a function of p, and p varies with ; since the pulse broadens. In the absence of spatial effects we have4
(4)
Fig. 1. Normalized central amplitude Jlo versus vfor six values of the critical parameter: p = 1.054 (curve I),
N cZS
(a)
'1
Fig. 2. Temporal and radial dependence of Jul at ; = 4 for the case of curve V from Fig. 1.
only are qualitatively new features observed (Fig. 2), but, more importantly, the critical value of 63(or is p) substantially increased in comparison with that of the dispersionless case. Larger values of a permit extremely high powers to be focused without collapse of the pulse. Just before the self-focusing tendency is exhibited, pulse splitting is observed at a propaga-
(b)
N.
tion distance corresponding roughly to the selffocusing distance in the absence of dispersion. The splitting is caused by strong diffraction of the peak of the pulse, which is extremely steep and deviates substantially from the Gaussian radial dependence.5
3 1
Fig. 3. Evolution of the temporal field amplitude dependence with propagation distance ; at p = 0. (a), (b), and (c) give the cases of curves I, IV, and V from Fig. 1, respectively.
174
OPTICS LETTERS
1, 1992
where p(O) _ p. The self-focusing length VSF becomes infinite at a critical distance
1C = (p 2 _ 1)-12/2
(5)
(a)
calculated from Eq. 6.4 of Ref. 1. At ; = 4, the pulse duration is increased by a factor of p. It can be assumed that self-focusing is avoided if Vc< FrsF, where TsF is calculated at ; = 0, i.e., usingp(0) = p. The constant F should satisfy F > 1 since in reality the radial confinement begins at ; = 0 if p > 1 and it can be fitted by the onset of temporal splitting as seen from Fig. 3. In the range p = 1 ... 5 a good fit is F = 5. For values of p >> 1 this estimation leads to the following relation:
a
terials. 6
20.27p
3 12
(6)
tosecond compression experiments in bulk maThe sample lengths used6 are, however,
shorter than the self-focusing distance, and comparison with these experimental results is not possible. Relation (6) is an approximate relation that corresponds to the onset of temporal oscillations. The exact dependence of the critical power for selffocusing on the group-velocity dispersion requires great numerical efforts and is a subject of our future research. It remains unclear whether in the limit of extremely large p the pulse collapses at all in the presence of dispersion, although other nonlinear effects are playing a preventing role in this limit, too.'
so
(b)
References
1. J. H. Marburger, Prog. Quantum Electron. 4, 35 (1975).
g1 2 6
2. Y. Silberberg, Opt. Lett. 15, 1282 (1990). 3. V Petrov, W Rudolph, and B. Wilhelmi, J. Mod. Opt. 36, 587 (1989).
(c)
Fig. 4. Evolution of the radial field amplitude dependence with the propagation distance ; at -q = 0. (a), (b), and (c) give the cases of curves I, IV, and V from Fig. 1, respectively.
4. W Rudolph and B. Wilhelmi, Light Pulse Compression (Harwood, Chur, Switzerland, 1989). 5. P. Chernev and V Petrov, "Numerical simulation of nonlinear pulse propagation in the self-focusing limit," submitted to Appl. Opt.
6. C. Rolland and P. B. Corkum, J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 5, 641 (1988).