Role of coherent resonant nonlinear processes in the ultrashort KrF laser pulse propagation and filamentation in air

Abstract

Recent experiments on multiple filamentation of sub-picosecond terawatt-level KrF laser pulse in air and multi-photon ionization of air revealed an extremely low electron density in filaments, which is out of the conventional filamentation model considering Kerr self-focusing and plasma de-focusing. We propose here the coherent resonant scattering and ionization processes at the pulse durations significantly less than the polarization relaxation time to be possible explanation of the observed filamentation peculiarities. Namely, we argue that the plasma production results from the resonance enhanced (2+1)-photon ionization of the oxygen molecules through the two-photon excitation of the 3s metastable Rydberg state. Coherent Raman self-scattering at rotational transitions of nitrogen molecules provides self-induced focusing of the ultrashort UV laser pulse and filament formation.