Controlling the Radiation Parameters of a Resonant Medium Excited by a Sequence of Ultrashort Superluminal Pulses

Abstract

We investigate the possibility of controlling the radiation parameters of a spatially periodic one-dimensional medium consisting of classical harmonic oscillators by means of a sequence of ultrashort pulses that propagate through the medium with a superluminal velocity. We show that, in the spectrum of the transient process, in addition to the radiation at a resonant frequency of oscillators, new frequencies arise that depend on the period of the spatial distribution of the oscillator density, the excitation velocity, and the angle of observation. We have examined in detail the case of excitation of the medium by a periodic sequence of ultrashort pulses that travel with a superluminal velocity. We show that it is possible to excite oscillations of complex shapes and to control the radiation parameters of the resonant medium by changing the relationship between the pulse repetition rate, the medium resonant frequency, and the new frequency.