Computer Studies in Self-Focusing

Abstract

We report extensive numerical solutions of the electromagnetic wave equation with a saturable, complex, intensity-dependent refractive index. The "large-scale" self-focusing region is fully explored, and some aspects of "small-scale" self-trapping induced by saturation of the nonlinear index are investigated. We find that many features of the numerical solutions are predicted rather well by the paraxial-ray-constant-shape approximation.