Numerical analysis of a small-scale instability of the leading edge of a pulse bleaching a resonant absorber

A numerical experiment was performed to investigate the nonlinear phase of an instability of the leading edge of a pulse bleaching a resonant absorber. It was found that, when the instabilities have developed, the maximum intensities exceed the average ones by not more than a factor of four, although the instability is not stabilized in the nonlinear phase and the inhomogeneous intensity distribution zone expands as the pulse propagates.