Self-diffraction of high-power short light pulses in resonant media

A theoretical analysis is made of the self-diffraction of short light pulses in an induced amplitude-phase grating in a thin layer of resonant medium. Expressions describing the amplitudes (intensities) of the diffracted beams are derived and analyzed. It is shown that the nature of the amplitude modulation of the light diffracted into small angles depends strongly on the amplitudes of the input pulses. It is demonstrated that transient self-diffraction of short pulses can be used in estimating the dipole moment of a saturable transition.