Femtosecond laser-guided electric discharge in air

Tzortzakis, S.; Prade, B.; Michel, F. C.; Mysyrowicz, A.; Hüller, S.; Mora, P.

doi:10.1103/physreve.64.057401

Cited by 133 publications

(77 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…We note that there is a delay of 5 or 10 s between the laser arrival time and the initiation of the discharge. A delay between laser pulse arrival and initiation of the discharge has been previously reported and discussed in terms of hydrodynamic expansion of the air heated by the initial plasma column [16][17] . We are planning a more detailed study of this retardation effect.…”

Section: Tesla Coil Discharges Guided By Femtosecond Laser Filaments mentioning

confidence: 99%

Tesla coil discharges guided by femtosecond laser filaments in air

Brelet

Houard

Arantchouk

et al. 2012

Applied Physics Letters

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Section: Tesla Coil Discharges Guided By Femtosecond Laser Filaments mentioning

confidence: 99%

Tesla coil discharges guided by femtosecond laser filaments in air

Brelet

Houard

Arantchouk

et al. 2012

Applied Physics Letters

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“…The weakly ionized plasma column and subsequent low density channel generated by laser filaments allow the precise triggering and guiding of electric discharges between two electrodes with a significant reduction of the breakdown voltage [7][8][9] . This effect is potentially useful for the development of laser lightning rod 4,[10][11] , high-voltage, high-current switches 12 , or virtual plasma antennas [13][14] .…”

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confidence: 99%

Prolongation of the lifetime of guided discharges triggered in atmospheric air by femtosecond laser filaments up to 130 μs

Arantchouk

Honnorat

Thouin

et al. 2016

Applied Physics Letters

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Abstract:The triggering and guiding of electric discharges produced in atmospheric air by a compact 100 kV Marx generator is realized in laboratory using an intense femtosecond laser pulse undergoing filamentation. We describe here an approach allowing extending the lifetime of the discharges by injecting a current with an additional circuit. Laser guiding discharges with a length of 8.5 cm and duration of 130 µs were obtained.In the last decade femtosecond laser filaments has proved to be a powerful tool to trigger and guide electric discharges in atmospheric air 1 with gap length of a few meters [2][3][4][5][6] . The weakly ionized plasma column and subsequent low density channel generated by laser filaments allow the precise triggering and guiding of electric discharges between two electrodes with a significant reduction of the breakdown voltage [7][8][9] . This effect is potentially useful for the development of laser lightning rod 4, 10-11 , high-voltage, high-current switches 12 , or virtual plasma antennas [13][14] .For applications such as plasma antennas, extension of the filament plasma lifetime is needed, since the plasma from the filament recombines in a few nanoseconds, seriously limiting the bandwidth of antennas to frequencies v> 10 9 Hz. This can be done using additional femtosecond or nanosecond laser pulses 15-17 but this technique is particularly complex and the resulting plasma is limited to a few µs. Injection of electric current through guided discharges appears to be a more promising way. The duration of the guided discharge mostly depends on the high voltage (HV) source, with a typical duration on the order of 100 ns [2][3][4]14 . In several publications, a Marx generator was used as the HV source to produce meter scale guided discharges. In this case, the discharge duration is defined by the product of the Marx "stack" capacitance C marx and a discharge load R load . In Ref. 18, a compact Marx generator was used to create a ~ 21 cm guided discharge of duration about 600 ns due to the mentioned Marx capacitance C max ~ 2 nF and the discharge load resistance R d ~ 300 Ω. In this letter we describe a method, which allows prolonging this parameter up to 130 µs. The experiment setup is presented in Fig. 1. The circuit is composed of two parts. The first part is a Marx generator described in 18. For this experiment the generator was composed of 5 stages charged up to 20 kV DC, resulting in 100 kV output pulse with a negative polarity. An inductance L 1 was connected to the generator output electrode and served as a load up to the moment when the Marx pulse produces a breakdown in the inter-electrode gap. The Marx output electrode has a cylinder form with an axial hole allowing the laser beam to enter in the generator and to trigger it. The second electrode is a round finger with a 5 mm radius. As described in Ref. 18, a chirped pulse amplified laser system emitting at a wavelength of 800 nm is used to produce the filaments between the two electrodes and inside the Marx generator. The laser pul...

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“…The strong electric fields at the two sharp extremities of the filament would then induce local CDs linking the filament with the two electrodes, as shown in Figure 3(d). Such CDs of the filament zone would be the precursor to induce a full discharge between two electrodes set at a high voltage difference [19][20][21][22][23][32][33][34][35][36] .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The possibility of using a laser filament to couple the external electromagnetic fields and initiate the high-voltage discharge [32] has been successfully demonstrated [33] . Although there are many experimental contributions on filament-guided discharges [19][20][21][22][23][32][33][34][35][36] , investigations on how a laser filament guides the external high-voltage corona discharge (CD) had not been fully explored yet until recently, when we reported on a direct observation of laser-filament-guided CDs [37] . When a laser filament was generated at ∼1 mm from the tip of a copper electrode, as shown in Figure 1(a), a high DC voltage of 50 kV could be guided along the laser filament, forming blue CDs on both ends of the filament.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spectroscopic analysis of high electric field enhanced ionization in laser filaments in air for corona guiding

Wei

Liu

Wang

et al. 2016

High Pow Laser Sci Eng

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We report on a systematic experimental study on the fluorescence spectra produced from a femtosecond laser filament in air under a high electric field. The electric field alone was strong enough to create corona discharge (CD). Fluorescence spectra from neutral and ionic air molecules were measured and compared with pure high-voltage CD and pure laser filamentation (FIL). Among them, high electric field assisted laser FIL produced nitrogen fluorescence more efficiently than either pure CD or pure FIL processes. The nonlinear enhancement of fluorescence from the interaction of the laser filament and corona discharging electric field resulted in a more efficient ionization along the laser filament zone, which was confirmed by the spectroscopic measurement of both ionization-induced fluorescence and plasma-scattered 800 nm laser pulses. This is believed to be the key precursor process for filament-guided discharge.

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Femtosecond laser-guided electric discharge in air

Cited by 133 publications

References 11 publications

Tesla coil discharges guided by femtosecond laser filaments in air

Tesla coil discharges guided by femtosecond laser filaments in air

Prolongation of the lifetime of guided discharges triggered in atmospheric air by femtosecond laser filaments up to 130 μs

Spectroscopic analysis of high electric field enhanced ionization in laser filaments in air for corona guiding

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