https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2011-01503-3
Review
Practitioner’s guide to laser pulse propagation models and simulation
Numerical implementation and practical usage of modern pulse propagation models
1 Centre de Physique Théorique, CNRS, École Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau, France
2 Department of Physics and Mathematics, University of Insubria, via Valleggio 11, 22100 Como, Italy
3 Department of Quantum Electronics, Vilnius University, Sauletekio Avenue 9, Bldg. 3, 10222 Vilnius, Lithuania
4 Departamento de Ciencias Naturales y Matemáticas, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana-Cali, Avenida Cañas Gordas No 118-250, Cali, Colombia
5 College of Optical Sciences, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA
6 Department of Physics, Constantine the Philosopher University, Nitra, Slovakia
a e-mail: couairon@cpht.polytechnique.fr
b e-mail: kolesik@optics.arizona.edu
Received:
29
August
2011
Revised:
4
October
2011
Published online:
7
December
2011
The purpose of this article is to provide practical introduction into numerical modeling of ultrashort optical pulses in extreme nonlinear regimes. The theoretic background section covers derivation of modern pulse propagation models starting from Maxwell’s equations, and includes both envelope-based models and carrier-resolving propagation equations. We then continue with a detailed description of implementation in software of Nonlinear Envelope Equations as an example of a mixed approach which combines finite-difference and spectral techniques. Fully spectral numerical solution methods for the Unidirectional Pulse Propagation Equation are discussed next. The modeling part of this guide concludes with a brief introduction into efficient implementations of nonlinear medium responses. Finally, we include several worked-out simulation examples. These are mini-projects designed to highlight numerical and modeling issues, and to teach numerical-experiment practices. They are also meant to illustrate, first and foremost for a non-specialist, how tools discussed in this guide can be applied in practical numerical modeling.
© EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag, 2011
