Femtosecond filamentation in air at low pressures: Part I: Theory and numerical simulations

Arnaud Couairon (1) , Michel Franco (2) , Grégoire Méchain (2) , Thomas Olivier (2) , Bernard Prade (2) , André Mysyrowicz (2)

1 CPHT - Centre de Physique Théorique [Palaiseau]
2 LOA - Laboratoire d'optique appliquée

We investigate numerically the influence of the pressure on femtosecond filamentation in air. We show that femtosecond filamentation occurs at low pressure and compute the features of the plasma channel generated in the wake of the pulse. We discuss the influence of the pulse duration, chirp and input beam shape on the length of the plasma channels. These calculations constitute a prerequisite for laboratory experiments over short distances as well as for vertical femtosecond filamentation at high altitude on which light detection and ranging techniques or lightning protection rely.

Keywords: filamentation; numerics; nonlinear optics

Domains: Optics [physics.optics]

Arnaud Couairon, Michel Franco, Grégoire Méchain, Thomas Olivier, Bernard Prade, et al.. Femtosecond filamentation in air at low pressures: Part I: Theory and numerical simulations. Optics Communications, 2006, 259 (1), pp.265-273. ⟨10.1016/j.optcom.2005.08.064⟩. ⟨hal-00461560⟩