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Long-range self-channeling of infrared laser pulses in air: a new propagation regime without ionization

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Abstract

We report long-range self-channeling in air of multiterawatt femtosecond laser pulses with large negative initial chirps. The peak intensity in the light channels is at least one order of magnitude lower than required for multiphoton ionization of air molecules. A detailed comparison is made between experiments and realistic 3+1-dimensional numerical simulations. It reveals that the mechanism limiting the growth of intensity by filamentation is connected with broken revolution symmetry in the transverse diffraction plane.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire d’Optique Appliquée, École Nationale Supérieure des Techniques Avancées, École Polytechnique, CNRS UMR 7639, 91761, Palaiseau Cedex, France

    G. Méchain, Y.-B. André, C. D’Amico, M. Franco, B. Prade, S. Tzortzakis & A. Mysyrowicz

  2. Centre de Physique Théorique, École Polytechnique, CNRS UMR 7644, 91128, Palaiseau Cedex, France

    A. Couairon

  3. Institut für Optik und Quantenelektronik, Max-Wien-Platz 1, 07743, Jena, Germany

    R. Sauerbrey

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  1. G. Méchain
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  2. A. Couairon
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  3. Y.-B. André
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  4. C. D’Amico
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  5. M. Franco
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  6. B. Prade
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  7. S. Tzortzakis
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  8. A. Mysyrowicz
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  9. R. Sauerbrey
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to A. Couairon.

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PACS

42.65.Sf; 42.25.Bs; 42.65.Jx; 52.38.Hb

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Méchain, G., Couairon, A., André, YB. et al. Long-range self-channeling of infrared laser pulses in air: a new propagation regime without ionization. Appl. Phys. B 79, 379–382 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-004-1557-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-004-1557-8

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