Propagation of electromagnetic waves in a nonlinear dielectric slab

The early phases of propagation of a large amplitude electromagnetic disturbance in a nonlinear dielectric slab embedded between two linear media are investigated by the method of characteristics. This disturbance is triggered by the arrival of an electromagnetic shock wave at one of the interfaces. Reflection and transmission of an arbitrary signal when it arrives at one of the slab boundaries is characterized in terms of nonlinear reflection and transmission coefficients for the interface. No restrictions are placed on the form of the constitutive laws of the material comprising the slab. By introducing, for the nonlinear dielectric, a class of model equations, an exact solution to the characteristic equations which describes the interaction of a centered wave with anarbitrary oncoming signal is obtained. Solutions for the electromagnetic fields are derived for the special case in which the incident disturbance interacts with the reflected signal from the slab interface. A particular case of the disturbance propagating across a nonmagnetic slab is also examined.