Propagation of fs TW laser filaments in adverse atmospheric conditions

Grégoire Méchain (1) , Guillaume Méjean (2) , Roland Ackermann (2) , Philipp Rohwetter (3) , Yves-Bernard André (1) , Jérôme Kasparian (2) , Bernard Prade (1) , Kamil Stelmaszczyk (3) , Jin Yu (2) , Estelle Salmon (2) , W. Winn (4) , L.A. Vern Schlie (5) , André Mysyrowicz (1) , Roland Sauerbrey (6) , Ludger Woeste (3) , Jean-Pierre Wolf (2)

1 LOA - Laboratoire d'optique appliquée
2 LASIM - Laboratoire de Spectrométrie Ionique et Moléculaire
3 Institut für Experimentalphysik
4 Langmuir Laboratory for Atmospheric Research
5 AFRL/DELS - Directed Energy Directorate
6 IOQ - Institut fur Optik und Quantenelectronik

The propagation of femtosecond terawatt laser pulses at reduced pressure (0.7 atm) is investigated experimentally. In such conditions, the non-linear refractive index n 2 is reduced by 30%, resulting in a slightly farther filamentation onset and a reduction of the filament number. However, the filamentation process, especially the filament length, is not qualitatively affected. We also show that drizzle does not prevent the filaments from forming and propagating.

Keywords: filamentation

Domains: Optics [physics.optics]

Grégoire Méchain, Guillaume Méjean, Roland Ackermann, Philipp Rohwetter, Yves-Bernard André, et al.. Propagation of fs TW laser filaments in adverse atmospheric conditions. Applied Physics B - Laser and Optics, 2005, 80 (7), pp.785-789. ⟨10.1007/s00340-005-1825-2⟩. ⟨hal-00463612⟩