Propagation of a short electromagnetic pulse in a linear medium with frequency and spatial dispersion: Direct integration of the Maxwell equations by the finite difference method

The specific features of the propagation of a short (on the order of ten oscillations) electromagnetic pulse in an isotropic linear medium with frequency and spatial dispersion, which were established via integration of a system of Maxwell equations by the finite-difference time-domain method using an auxiliary differential equation, are discussed. The variation of the direction of the electric field-strength vector oscillations that occurs in an optically active medium upon propagation of a linearly polarized ultrashort pulse incident on it is shown to be significantly different from the rotation of the polarization plane (proportional to the propagation coordinate) in the case of the incidence of a long pulse.