Interaction of counterpropagating few cycle light pulses in nonlinear dielectric media and radiation generation at combination frequencies in this process

Abstract

The regularities of the interaction of counterpropagating optical pulses of only a few oscillations of the light field in nonlinear dielectric media are studied theoretically. The temporal structure of the pulse field, due to its interaction with the counterpropagating pulse, is shown to be varied such that the field zeros are the most shifted in time and its extreme values are not shifted. The center of mass of the spectral density is shifted to the short-wavelength region. The efficiency of these phenomena is determined by the energy of the counterpropagating pulse and does not depend on its duration and spectral composition. The possibility of wave generation at tripled and combination frequencies is demonstrated for the media whose size is less than the interaction region. The efficiency of this generation with respect to the phase mutual modulation is shown to be increasing with a decrease in the number of oscillations in colliding pulses.