Temporal width of propagated electromagnetic pulses in causal, dispersive and absorptive, dielectrics

The unified asymptotic theory provides an accurate description of the field dynamics in (chirped) dispersive electromagnetic pulse propagation of arbitrary initial width in causally dispersive media. The propagated field is a superposition of pulse components whose characteristics are directly related to the dynamical evolution of the saddle points that are relevant in the asymptotic analysis. Here, this theoretical approach is utilized in order to investigate the dependence of the temporal width of the propagated field's envelope on the input field and medium parameters from the sub-cycle to the quasimonochromatic initial pulse regimes.