Self-induced transparency in a dispersive medium

The evolution of the electromagnetic field in a two-level medium occurring in a matrix with finite response time has been studied. An integrable variant of the Maxwell-Bloch equations with allowance for nonlinear dispersion is derived and solved using the inverse scattering problem. It is shown that the nonlinear dispersion caused by the finite response time of the matrix yields a new possibility of controlling soliton parameters. A particular case of the constructed model can be used to describe field pulses in the parameter domain that occurs between the regions of applicability of the quasi-monochromatic approximation and the approximation of unidirectional propagation of pulses with durations on the order of the oscillation period.