title: Spatiotemporal structure of isodiffracting ultrashort electromagnetic pulses
abstract: We present a model of isodiffracting single-cycle and few-cycle ultrashort electromagnetic pulses. The model is based on exact solutions of the time-dependent paraxial wave equation with space-time coupling effects included. The spatiotemporal structure of these pulses is characterized by a scaling parameter which relates off-axis pulse shapes to the axial temporal waveforms. Depending on the spectrum a pulse may transform itself from a single-cycle pulse to a multicycle pulse along the radial coordinate. This model is also used to describe recirculating pulses in a curved mirror cavity resonator. The Gouy phase shift contributes an absolute phase that results in a pulse-to-pulse temporal instability.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan, 1301 Beal Avenue, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2122, USA.
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Winful