Self-organized propagation of femtosecond laser filamentation in air

Abstract

A long plasma channel is formed with a length up to a few hundred meters when intense femtosecond laser pulses propagate in air. We find that the propagation of the filaments in the channel shows a very complicated process including the evolution from a single filament into two and three and even more distinct filaments periodically, and the merging of multiple filaments into two filaments that propagate stably and fade away eventually. From the point of view of applications, the lifetime of the plasma channel can be prolonged to the order of microseconds when another sub-ns laser pulse is introduced. The filaments' distribution is optimized using a pinhole with different diameters. Our experiments also demonstrate simultaneous triggering and guiding of large gap discharges in air by laser filaments. A new concept of "laser plasma channel propulsion" is proposed. It is demonstrated that the plasma channel can continuously propel a light paper airplane without complicated focusing optics. As for the long distance propagation of the laser pulses, the filamentation process and the surpercontinuum (SC) emission are closely dependent on the initial negative chirp and the divergence angle of the laser beam. Most of laser energy deposited in the background serves as an energy reservoir for further propagation of the filamentation. We have shown that an energy reservoir over ten times the size of the filament core (mm size) is necessary to feed a single filament undisturbed propagation. At last, the characteristics of the multiple filaments formed by pre-focused and freely propagating fs laser pulses are investigated and compared. © 2009 Springer New York.