Temporal reshaping of two-dimensional pulses

An analytic study of complete cylindrical focusing of pulses in two dimensions is presented, and compared with the analogous threedimensional case of focusing over a complete sphere. Such behavior is relevant for understanding the limiting performance of ultrafast, planar photonic and plasmonic devices. A particular spectral distribution is assumed that contains finite energy. Separate ingoing and outgoing pulsed waves are considered, along with the combination that would be generated in free space by an ingoing wave. It is shown that for the two dimensional case, in order to produce a temporally symmetrical pulse at the focus, an asymmetric pulse must be launched. A symmetrical outgoing pulse is generated from a source with asymmetric time behavior, or an antisymmetric input pulse. These results are very different from the corresponding three-dimensional case, and imply fundamental limitations on the performance of ultrafast, tightly focused, two-dimensional devices.