Polarization effects in the interaction of extremely short light pulses with nonlinear media

The nonlinear dynamics of pulses consisting of only a few light field cycles propagating in nonlinear isotropic media was studied. It was shown that polarization self-action of such pulses is manifested as a nonuniform rotation of the polarization ellipse with invariance in its ellipticity under pulse temporal broadening, owing to dispersion. It was shown that the efficiency of spectral ultrabroadening corresponding to these effects decreases as the light ellipticity increases. (Author)