Carrier field shock formation of long wavelength femtosecond pulses in dispersive media

TL;DR

This paper numerically investigates the formation of carrier field shocks in dispersive media for long wavelength femtosecond pulses, highlighting their inevitability and significance in ultrashort nonlinear optics and attosecond pulse generation.

Contribution

It demonstrates the near-inevitability of carrier wave shocks in various dispersive media for intense long wavelength pulses using two propagation models.

Findings

Carrier shocks are often unavoidable in weakly dispersive nonlinear media.

Physical effects significantly influence shock formation.

Results impact ultrashort pulse and attosecond science.

Abstract

We numerically demonstrate the formation of carrier field shocks in various dispersive media for a wide variety of input conditions using two different electric field propagation models. In addition, an investigation of the impact of numerous physical effects on carrier wave shock is performed. It is shown that in many cases a field shock is essentially unavoidable and therefore extremely important in the propagation of intense long wavelength pulses in weakly dispersive nonlinear media such as noble gases, air, and single-crystal diamond. The results presented here are expected to have a significant impact in the field of ultrashort nonlinear optics, attosecond pulse generation, and wavepacket synthesis where the use of mid-IR wavelengths is becoming increasingly more important.