Standing and Moving Gap Solitons in Resonantly Absorbing Gratings

We present hitherto unknown forms of soliton dynamics in the forbidden frequency gap of a Bragg reflector, modified by periodic layers of near-resonant two-level systems (TLS). Remarkably, even extremely low TLS densities create an allowed band within the forbidden gap. This spectrum gives rise, for any Bragg reflectivity, to a vast family of stable gap solitons, both standing and moving, having a unique analytic form, an arbitrary pulse area, and inelastic collision properties. These findings suggest new possibilities of transmission control, noise filtering or “dynamical cavities” (self-traps) for both weak and strong signal pulses.