Maxwell-Drude-Bloch dissipative few-cycle optical solitons

We study the propagation of few-cycle pulses in two-component medium consisting of nonlinear amplifying and absorbing two-level centers embedded into a linear and conductive host material. First we present a linear theory of propagation of short pulses in a purely conductive material, and demonstrate the diffusive behavior for the evolution of the low-frequency components of the magnetic field in the case of relatively strong conductivity. Then, numerical simulations carried out in the frame of the full nonlinear theory involving the Maxwell-Drude-Bloch model reveal the stable creation and propagation of few-cycle dissipative solitons under excitation by incident femtosecond optical pulses of relatively high energies. The broadband losses that are introduced by the medium conductivity represent the main stabilization mechanism for the dissipative few-cycle solitons.Comment: 38 pages, 10 figures. submitted to Physical Review