Filamentation in Air with Ultrashort Mid-Infrared Pulses
Abstract
We theoretically investigate filamentation of ultrashort laser pulses in air in the mid-infrared regime under conditions in which the group-velocity dispersion (GVD) is anomalous. When a high-power, ultrashort mid-infrared laser beam centered at 3.1m forms a filament, a spatial solitary wave is stabilized by the plasma formation and propagates several times its diffraction length. Compared with temporal self-compression in gases due to plasma formation and pulse splitting in the normal-GVD regime, the minimum achievable pulse duration is limited by the bandwidth of the anomalous-GVD region in air. For the relatively high powers, multiple pulse splitting due to the plasma effect and shock formation is observed, which is similar to that which occurs in solids. Our simulations show that the energy reservoir also plays a critical role for longer propagation of the air filament in the anomalous-GVD regime.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 09, 2011
- Accession Number
- ADA542103
Entities
People
- Alexander L. Gaeta
- Bonggu Shim
- Samuel E. Schrauth
Organizations
- Cornell University School of Applied and Engineering Physics