Fine control of terahertz radiation from filamentation by molecular lensing in air

Magali Durand (1, 2) , Yi Liu (1) , Aurélien Houard (1) , André Mysyrowicz (1)

1 LOA - Laboratoire d'optique appliquée
2 ONERA - The French Aerospace Lab [Châtillon]

We demonstrate a method to control remotely the terahertz (THz) source in air based on the bifilamentation of femtosecond laser pulses. By fine tuning the time delay between the two pulses, a significant modulation of the THz intensity from bifilamentation is observed. The phenomenon is attributed to the molecule quantum lensing effect around the air molecule revival time, which changes the separation between the two neighboring plasma producing filaments.

Mots clés: Ultrafast optics; Filamentation; Physical optics

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]

Magali Durand, Yi Liu, Aurélien Houard, André Mysyrowicz. Fine control of terahertz radiation from filamentation by molecular lensing in air. Optics Letters, 2010, 35 (10), pp.1710-1712. ⟨10.1364/OL.35.001710⟩. ⟨hal-00487635⟩