Abstract Andrew Hofstrand

Abstract: Modeling the propagation of ultrashort laser pulses

In this talk I will give an overview of some novel iterative methods which extend the unidirectional approximation, commonly used in simulating the propagation of intense, ultrashort (10-100 femtosecond) laser pulses through complicated bulk media, to localized bidirectional interactions.  I will also present some analysis on a simplified carrier-resolved PDE model for pulse propagation. This will lead to sufficient conditions on the initial data and ambient medium for the solution to critically collapse after a finite propagation distance.