Anomalous long-range propagation of femtosecond laser pulses through air:?moving focus or pulse self-guiding?

Lange, H.; Grillon, G.; Ripoche, J.-F.; Michel, F. C.; Lamouroux, B.; Prade, B.; Mysyrowicz, A.; Nibbering, Erik T. J.; Chiron, A.

doi:10.1364/ol.23.000120

Cited by 138 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…By moving the probe pulse perpendicularly to the propagation axis of the filament, the dimension of the object which modifies the refraction index (filament) is obtained, about 80 µm in the initial stage of the filamentation. This measurement is in agreement with numerical results [10,20,47]. Yang et al [92] measured the phase contrast and obtained similar results.…”

Section: Laboratory Experimentssupporting

confidence: 88%

Femtosecond Filamentation in Air

Couairon

Mysyrowicz

2006

Springer Series in Chemical Physics

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Section: Laboratory Experimentssupporting

confidence: 88%

Femtosecond Filamentation in Air

Couairon

Mysyrowicz

2006

Springer Series in Chemical Physics

Self Cite

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“…Some of them adopt moving focus model [1] which implies that filamentation is merely an optical illusion occurring when time-integrated detection is used. Others describe filaments as self-channelled beams [2,3] whose stationarity is supported by a balance between Kerr-induced self-focusing and plasma-induced defocusing; a genuine soliton-like propagation, however, is destroyed by additional physical effects [4]. The dynamic spatial replenishment model [5] treats filamentation as a cyclic defocusing and focusing due to the dynamic interplay between the Kerr and plasma effects.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Discrete damage traces from filamentation of Gauss-Bessel pulses

et al. 2006

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Filamentation of Bessel-Gauss pulses propagating in borosilicate glass is found to produce damage lines extending over hundreds of micrometers and consisting of discrete, equidistant damage spots. These discrete damage traces are explained by self-regeneration of Gauss-Bessel beams during the propagation and are potentially applicable in laser microfabrication of transparent materials.Light filaments formed by laser beams propagating in transparent media present an interesting case of spatial, and possibly, temporal localization of electromagnetic radiation at extremely high power densities sustainable over significant propagation lengths. The potential areas of applications of such light channeling range from remote sensing and LIDAR to laser microscopy and microfabrication. Generation and dynamics of light filaments is explained using a wide range of physical models. Some of them adopt moving focus model [1] which implies that filamentation is merely an optical illusion occurring when time-integrated detection is used. Others describe filaments as self-channelled beams [2, 3] whose stationarity is supported by a balance between Kerr-induced self-focusing and plasma-induced defocusing; a genuine soliton-like propagation, however, is destroyed by additional physical effects [4]. The dynamic spatial replenishment model [5] treats filamentation as a cyclic defocusing and focusing due to the dynamic interplay between the Kerr and plasma effects. According to the recently proposed "filamentation without self-channelling" model [6,7], multiphoton absorption alone can dynamically balance the self-focusing, thus leading to filamentation. It was shown numerically [8] that the absorption transforms the initial Gaussian beam toward the Gauss-Bessel (GB) beam, which is a modified solution of the free-space Helmholz equation [9]. Consequently, filament represents a narrow, high-intensity central part of a GB beam, whose propagation losses are replenished from the low-intensity side lobes containing the main part of the beam's energy. This model is strongly supported by recent experimental and theoretical results [7,10,11] demonstrating extreme robustness (self-healing) of the filaments in reconstructing their intensity after encountering microscopic obstacles.In most of the studies reported so far filamentation was seeded using laser beams with Gaussian transverse profiles. Having in mind the GB nature of filaments, the possibility of directly launching a powerful Bessel beam into the material and thus circumventing the internal transformation from Gaussian toward GB beam, is intriguing. The internal transformation is governed by the materials' nonlinear response, which may limit the obtainable peak intensity of the GB beam. An external GB beam (e.g., generated using an axicon) may have power sufficient for inducing and sustaining extensive damage along its entire propagation path. The possibility to fabricate extended lines in transparent solids almost instantaneously is beneficial for laser microfabrication. Here we show ...

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“…As a result, temporal layers located at the trailing edge of the pulse are coupled with the preceding layers, and their propagation cannot be considered as isolated. To account for this circumstance, the MF model was revised [33,34], and this has resulted in the filamentation model as a sequence of dynamic moving foci (DMF).…”

Section: Filament As a Sequence Of Moving Focimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…5b, c and Figs. 6b, c. In [34], the GOA and PWA approaches were used to estimate the characteristic values of laser intensity in a filament and its radius as well. Within the PWA approximation, the following force balance should be fulfilled for paraxial rays:f w +f geom = 0 (see Fig.…”

Section: Diffraction Optics Of Light Filamentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Model description of intense ultra-short laser pulse filamentation: multiple foci and diffraction rays

2011

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We present a new outlook on the problem of ultrashort laser pulse self-focusing and filamentation when propagating in air. Two previously known qualitative physical models of optical pulse filamentation scenario, the dynamic multiple focusing, and the wave-guiding models, are considered and partially revisited. In terms of the averaged (effective) laser beam radius, the filament is treated as a net product of layer-by-layer (in time) self-focusing of separate temporal pulse slices. By means of the developed timeaveraged diffraction ray tracking technique, the crucial role of the diffraction effects in the formation of a light filament and next following a low-divergent light channel near the beam axis is revealed.

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Anomalous long-range propagation of femtosecond laser pulses through air:?moving focus or pulse self-guiding?

Cited by 138 publications

References 6 publications

Femtosecond Filamentation in Air

Femtosecond Filamentation in Air

Discrete damage traces from filamentation of Gauss-Bessel pulses

Model description of intense ultra-short laser pulse filamentation: multiple foci and diffraction rays

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