Harmonic generation enhancement due to interaction of few-cycle light pulses in nonlinear dielectric coating on a mirror

Abstract

We theoretically investigate reflection of a few-cycle light pulse from a mirror with nonlinear dielectric coating. We employ a nonlinear equation that describes spatiotemporal evolution of a few-cycle light pulse with a broad spectrum that lies in the transparency range of nonlinear dielectric media. This model is formulated directly for the electric field without slowly varying amplitude approximation. Analytical and numerical analysis shows that counter-propagating wave interactions in thin films can strongly enhance or suppress third harmonic generation of the central frequency, whereas this effect is neglected in the framework of slowly varying amplitude approximation.