Broadening of picosecond pulses in light guides and frustrated total internal reflection

Geometric-optics methods are used to show that allowance for the frustrated total internal reflection in the propagation of light in planar guides should result in the splitting of a short pulse into two separate components with opposite polarizations. In a cylindrical guide (fiber) such reflection produces, in agreement with the experimental results, an asymmetric distortion of the pulse. This effect should appear most clearly in capillary guides.