Optical pulse dynamics in active metamaterials with positive and negative refractive index
Abstract
We study numerically the propagation of two-color light pulses through a metamaterial doped with active atoms such that the carrier frequencies of the pulses are in resonance with two atomic transitions in the $\Lambda$ configuration and that one color propagates in the regime of positive refraction and the other in the regime of negative refraction. In such a metamaterial, one resonant color of light propagates with positive and the other with negative group velocity. We investigate nonlinear interaction of these forward- and backward-propagating waves, and find self-trapped waves, counter-propagating radiation waves, and hot spots of medium excitation.
- Publication:
-
Journal of the Optical Society of America B Optical Physics
- Pub Date:
- April 2013
- DOI:
- 10.1364/JOSAB.30.001077
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1302.0096
- Bibcode:
- 2013JOSAB..30.1077K
- Keywords:
-
- Physics - Optics;
- Nonlinear Sciences - Pattern Formation and Solitons
- E-Print:
- 9 pages, 6 figures