Abstract
We reveal the existence of an optical self-induced-transparency soliton family in a two-level absorbing system down to the few-cycle limit. Based on the few-cycle envelope approximation, we introduce a systematical method of reducing the Maxwell-Bloch equations beyond the slowly varying envelope approximation and characterize the parameter space to achieve slow and fast lights. Verified by direct numerical simulations with full vectorial Maxwell-Bloch equations, we also give the relationships for a number of optical cycles on area theory and pulse group velocity, which demonstrate possible coherent photon-matter interactions. © 2011 American Physical Society.