Effects of propagation, transverse mode coupling and diffraction on nonlinear light pulse evolution

A description is given of computational methods using the semiclassical model, which were developed for the efficient treatment of transverse and longitudinal reshaping associated with single stream and two-way propagation effects in cooperative light-matter interactions. These mathematical methods are justified on physical grounds, and typical illustrative results of propagation in resonant absorbers, amplifiers and superfluorescence systems are presented. The applicability of computational methods developed in gas and fluid dynamics to the detailed evolution of optical beams in nonlinear media is demonstrated, and a significant improvement of the calculations presented through the introduction of adaptive stretching and rezoning transformations wherever possible is achieved.