Abstract

Here we numerically investigate the propagation of unipolar half-cycle attosecond pulses with a duration much shorter than the period of the proper oscillations ${T_0}$ of the medium and its relaxation times ${T_1}$ and ${T_2}$ in a two-level resonant absorbing and amplifying medium. We find that despite breaking down of the famous McCall and Hahn area theorem, some phenomena described by this theorem are still qualitatively preserved. In particular, it is shown that pulses with small initial electric pulse area become sign-alternating upon the propagation, similar to the traditional $0\pi$ pulses; pulses with $4\pi$, $5\pi$, and $6\pi$ area are unstable and split into lower-order pulses, exactly as in the long-pulse case. The electric pulse area conservation rule and limitations of unipolar pulse amplification in two-level gain media, which follows from this rule, are discussed.

© 2021 Optical Society of America

Excitation and control of level populations in rectangular quantum wells by unipolar half-cycle attosecond pulses

Rostislav Arkhipov, Pavel Belov, Anton Pakhomov, Mikhail Arkhipov, and Nikolay Rosanov
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 41(1) 285-295 (2024)

Coherent control of a multilevel resonant medium by subcycle pulses

Anton Pakhomov, Nikolay Rosanov, Mikhail Arkhipov, and Rostislav Arkhipov
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 41(1) 46-54 (2024)

Selective ultrafast control of multi-level quantum systems by subcycle and unipolar pulses

Rostislav Arkhipov, Anton Pakhomov, Mikhail Arkhipov, Ayhan Demircan, Uwe Morgner, Nikolay Rosanov, and Ihar Babushkin
Opt. Express 28(11) 17020-17034 (2020)

Near dipole-dipole effects on the propagation of few-cycle pulse in a dense two-level medium

Keyu Xia, Shangqing Gong, Chengpu Liu, Xiaohong Song, and Yueping Niu
Opt. Express 13(16) 5913-5924 (2005)

Near-resonant propagation of the light pulse in a homogeneously broadened two-level medium

W. Miklaszewski
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 12(10) 1909-1917 (1995)