We characterize the propagation of short optical pulses through dispersive media with a cubic self-focusing nonlinear polarization, which incorporates self-steepening and self-frequency shifting. These effects can significantly affect pulse propagation dynamics, both in the normal but especially in the anomalous dispersion regimes. The nature of the dynamics is significantly different in the two regimes.

• Received 5 November 1997

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.57.4791