DIRECT TIME INTEGRATION OF MAXWELLS EQUATIONS IN NONLINEAR DISPERSIVE MEDIA FOR PROPAGATION AND SCATTERING OF FEMTOSECOND ELECTROMAGNETIC SOLITONS

We report the initial results for femtosecond electromagnetic soliton propagation and collision obtained from first principles, i.e., by a direct time integration of Maxwell's equations. The time integration efficiently implements linear and nonlinear convolutions for the electric polarization and can take into account such quantum effects as Kerr and Raman interactions. The present approach is robust and should permit the modeling of two- and three-dimensional optical soliton propagation, scattering, and switching from the full-vector Maxwell's equations.