Anomalous long-range propagation of femtosecond laser pulses through air: moving focus or pulse self-guiding?

Hans Rudiger Lange (1) , G. Grillon (1) , Jean-François Ripoche (1) , Michel A. Franco (1) , Brigitte Lamouroux (1) , Bernard Prade (1) , André Mysyrowicz (1) , Erik T. Nibbering (2) , Arnaud Chiron (3)

1 LOA - Laboratoire d'optique appliquée
2 MBI - Max-Born-Institut für Nichtlineare Optik und Kurzzeitspektroskopie
3 Dipartimento di Fisica

Self-guided propagation of femtosecond laser pulses is studied for a converging-beam configuration. Channeling of the pulse energy through various gases is observed over distances well beyond the lens focal point, a fact that cannot be explained by the moving-focus model. The results are in good agreement with three-dimensional numerical simulations.

Keywords: nonlinear optics; filamentation; kerr effect

Domains: Physics [physics]; Physics [physics]; Optics [physics.optics]

Hans Rudiger Lange, G. Grillon, Jean-François Ripoche, Michel A. Franco, Brigitte Lamouroux, et al.. Anomalous long-range propagation of femtosecond laser pulses through air: moving focus or pulse self-guiding?. Optics Letters, 1998, 23 (2), pp.120-122. ⟨10.1364/OL.23.000120⟩. ⟨hal-00465595⟩