Effects of Atomic Motion on Breakup and Propagation of Quasiresonant Laser Pulses.

An intense, nearly resonant laser pulse with a transverse spatial and temporal profile, interacting with a highly nonlinear medium will break up into solitons. Taking into account the effects of atomic motion reveals that with or without the Doppler effect, the essential physics is that as the pulse propagates the oscillations impressed upon the field continue to be amplified, eventually resulting in the breakup of the pulse into several solitons.