Spatiotemporal dynamics of electromagnetic pulses in saturating nonlinear optical media with normal group velocity dispersion

The nonlinear dynamics of ultrashort optical pulses in nonlinear saturating media with normal group velocity dispersion is examined. The studied saturating nonlinearity changes the sign at the peak intensity of the laser pulses. In the bulk media and the planar wave guides the temporal collapse of the pulse is arrested by its splitting in spatial domain leading to rings formation. The wave collapse in one dimensional geometry cannot be arrested; the field singularity develops for a finite propagation distance.