Direct measurements of the dynamics of self-guided femtosecond laser filaments in air

Author

Gordon, Daniel F. ; Ting, Antonio C. ; Alexeev, Ilya ; Fischer, Richard P. ; Sprangle, Phillip

Author_Institution

Plasma Phys. Div., Naval Res. Lab., Washington, DC, USA

Volume

34

Issue

2

fYear

2006

fDate

4/1/2006 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

249

Lastpage

253

Abstract

Imaging of femtosecond laser filaments is accomplished by utilizing a recently developed diagnostic which is not damaged by the filaments and which greatly reduces the nonlinearities in the detection system. This calibrated detection system allows quantities such as the filament energy and fluence distribution to be determined with greater detail, accuracy, and confidence than was previously possible. The diagnostic is placed on a rail so that filament images can be obtained at a large number of positions along the propagation path. It is found that filaments formed from 450-fs pulses carry higher fluence and propagate farther than filaments formed from 50-fs pulses.

Keywords

filamentation instability; high-speed optical techniques; plasma diagnostics; plasma light propagation; plasma nonlinear processes; plasma production by laser; 450 fs; 50 fs; detection system nonlinearities; filament energy; filamentation instability; fluence distribution; laser-plasma interaction; self-guided femtosecond laser filaments; Charge coupled devices; Charge-coupled image sensors; Helium; Nonlinear optics; Optical propagation; Optical pulses; Optical refraction; Optical variables control; Plasma measurements; Ultrafast optics; Air propagation; filamentation; laser–plasma interaction; ultrashort pulses;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TPS.2006.872179

Filename

1621293