Self-transparence in ruby taking account of level degeneracy

The propagation of self-transparent pulses in ruby in the presence of degenerate transitions is analyzed. Transmission losses of a supershort high-power light pulse at the frequency of the R1 resonance line are calculated for the cases of independent degenerate transitions, and degenerate transitions connected by a common upper level. The transmission of a given light pulse through 12 cm of ruby is found to differ in the two cases, amounting to 0.13 and 0.70, respectively. Results thus demonstrate the significance of the connectedness of degenerate systems under conditions of self-transparency in ruby.