Positive and negative linear chirping of Gaussian pulses in non-dispersive dielectric layers

Abstract

In this work, the first and second order effects for reflected and transmitted pulses with a Gaussian distribution of frequencies are analytically developed and interpreted. They show some peculiar characteristics that bear certain parallelism with those of monochromatic beams with a Gaussian distribution of amplitudes. However, when the former are considered, the results of the first and second order effects obtained analytically are more difficult to interpret and are clearly limited by the principle of causality. We show that pulses show some peculiar characteristics when they reflect and transmit through linear media: time delay, shifting of the mean frequency and modification of the pulse width. In addition to these effects we show and analyze the unexpected presence of chirping when a simple structure of non-dispersive materials is considered.