Abstract
The inertia of the Kerr-type nonlinear-optical response of bound electrons in solids is analyzed. It is shown that, in the case of wide-gap materials, away from the mid-gap frequency Eg/2ħ, Eg being the band gap, the inertia of this response becomes noticeable only for attosecond pulse features. However, near Eg/2ħ, where the inertia of bound-electron Kerr-type optical nonlinearity is enhanced by a strong dispersion of two-photon absorption and where the nonlinear refraction is especially strong, light pulses as long as tens and even hundreds of femtoseconds are expected to experience self-steepening and an asymmetric spectral broadening due to the retarded Kerr effect.
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