Wededuceacompletewavepropagationequationthatincludesinhomogeneityofthedielectricconstantandpresentthispropagationequationincompactvectorform.Althoughsimilarequationsareknowninnarrowfieldssuchasradiowavepropagationintheionosphereandelectromagneticandacousticwavepropagationinstratifiedmedia,wedevelophereanovelapproachofusingsuchequationsinthemodelingoflaserbeampropagationinnonlinearmedia.Ourapproachsatisfiesthecorrespondenceprinciplesinceinthelimitofzero-lengthwavelengthitreducesfromphysicaltogeometricaloptics.
