Ultrafast Pulse Management with Hyperbolic Metamaterials

Understanding interaction of ultrafast optical pulses with materials is important for the development of new approaches for pulse management and, vice versa, for tailoring optical processes enabled by laser pulses. Here, we investigate the interaction and modification of ultrashort optical pulses with anisotropic metamaterials in hyperbolic and epsilon-near-zero dispersion regimes. Considering a broad range of pulse lengths from 8 fs to 180 fs, we demonstrate how the changes of the spectral and wavevector content of the pulse due to the interaction with metamaterial influence its spatial and temporal shape. The developed model provides opportunities to investigate the details of interaction of ultrashort pulses with complex media in a wide range of pulse durations and shapes.