Self-Modulation of Optical Pulses in a Kerr Medium and Limits of the Single-Mode Approximation Article uri icon

abstract

  • The formal definition of the effective oscillator is suggested. The propagation of an optical pulse in a Kerr medium is formulated in terms of the effective oscillators. Limits of the single-mode approximation are discussed. It is shown that the number of photons escaped from the principal mode to the highest modes is much greater than the square of the nonlinear phase shift of the principal mode. This prohibits the production of the Schrödinger cat states by nonlinear automodulation of the coherent rectangular optical pulses in a Kerr medium, but allows the squeezing.

publication date

  • 1999-01-01