Steady-state self-focusing of Gaussian electromagnetic beams in an inhomogeneous nonlinear medium: Effect of absorption and initial curvature of the beam

The authors have investigated the effect of linear absorption and initial curvature of an electromagnetic Gaussian beam on focusing/defocusing in an inhomogeneous nonlinear medium. Numerical computations have been made for linear inhomogeneity and saturating nonlinearity, characteristic of dielectrics and collisional plasmas. The maximum and minimum of the beam width keep decreasing with increase in distance of propagation (or absorption), till the beam becomes very weak and diverges steeply; penetration in an overdense medium also decreases with increasing absorption. Converging beams initially converge and then go in: (i) the oscillatory divergence (ii) self-focusing or (iii) steady divergence mode, depending upon the initial values of beam width and axial irradiance. The maximum penetration in an overdense medium has the highest values for −0.7<(df/dξ)_ξ=0<0.4 and falls sharply, outside these limits.