Dynamics of the spectral width of intense laser pulses consisting of several field oscillations in optical waveguides

The dependence of the rms spectral width of a light pulse consisting of several light-field oscillations on the distance passed in an optical waveguide with arbitrary dispersion and nonresonant electronic nonlinearity has been derived. This dependence allows one to rapidly predict the scenarios of the initial evolution of the spectrum (broadening, distance independence, or compression) by using the input pulse parameters and waveguide characteristics. It is shown that the pulse spectral width increases when the enrichment of the spectrum due to the generation of multiple harmonics is taken into account. In this case, for pulses with the spectrum in the region of the anomalous group dispersion of the waveguide, there is the intensity range for which the self-narrowing of the main spectral peak around the central radiation frequency is characteristic.