Compression of an intensive light pulse in a dense resonant medium and photonic-band-gap structures containing it

Intensive light pulse interaction with a dense resonant medium is considered. The possibilities of optical switching and pulse compression at realistic parameters of the medium are analyzed. Pulse shape transformation in different photonic band gap structures containing a dense resonant medium is studied. In particular the effect of dispersion compensation due to nonlinear interaction with a medium is reported. The possibility of pulse control with another pulse is considered in the schemes of co- and counter-propagating pulses. It is shown that a photonic crystal makes controlling more effective, at least in the case of co-propagating pulses.