Abstract

From the exact Maxwell’s equations, solutions have been obtained that are similar to light bullets [1], i.e. optical pulses that are self-supporting under the effects of diffraction, anomalous dispersion and nonlinear refraction. These pulses propagate stably, without any essential changes in shape or spectral content. For comparison, standard theory, which uses the nonlinear Schrodinger equation (NLSE), (an approximation to Maxwell’s equations), predicts [1] that under the effects of nonlinear refraction, self-focusing will lead to the collapse of optical pulses. Also, additional calculations show that when two of these pulses are counter-propagating, upon interacting, they change each others’ trajectories. These pulses are extremely small, approximately 25 fs in duration and contain about 5 wavelengths.

© 1995 Optical Society of America