Propagation of shape-preserving optical pulses in inhomogeneously broadened multi-level systems

We study stable propagation of multiple shape-preserving optical pulses in an inhomogeneously broadened multi-level atomic medium. By analytically solving the Maxwell-Schrödinger equations governing the evolution of N coupled optical fields and atomic amplitudes we show that N pulsed optical waves coupling to (N+1)-levels can be automatically matched with the same soliton waveform and identical yet very slow propagation velocity. Several sets of coupled soliton solutions for two different (N+1)-level models are given and their stability is studied by using a numerical simulation.