Dissipative optical solitons in dense media with optical pumping

The problem of nonlinear scattering of optical pulses in a dense three-level atomic medium with continuous pumping is considered with allowance for the local field effects. The physical requirements on the parameters of the medium and field are formulated, and the ranges of these parameters for which stationary solitons are effectively formed in the model of a quartz waveguide doped with 87 Rb atoms are determined using variational methods. It is found that disregarding the local field in this model results in violation of soliton stability in the predicted parameter range.