DOI

Here we numerically investigate the propagation of unipolar half-cycle attosecond pulses with a duration much shorter than the period of the proper oscillations T0 of the medium and its relaxation times T1 and T2 in a twolevel 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 0π pulses; pulses with 4π, 5π, and 6π 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 fromthis rule, are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2004-2011
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of the Optical Society of America B: Optical Physics
Volume38
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 27 May 2021

    Scopus subject areas

  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
  • Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

    Research areas

  • DISSIPATIVE SOLITONS, SUBCYCLE PULSE, LIGHT-PULSE, GENERATION, AREA

ID: 77793859