Optical beam dynamics in a gas repetitively heated by femtosecond filaments

We investigate beam pointing dynamics in filamentation in gases driven by high repetition rate femtosecond laser pulses. Upon sudden exposure of a gas to a kilohertz train of filamenting pulses, successive filaments are steered from their original direction to a new stable direction whose equilibriu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Optics express Vol. 21; no. 23; pp. 28980 - 28986
Main Authors:	Jhajj, N, Cheng, Y-H, Wahlstrand, J K, Milchberg, H M
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States Optical Society of America 18-11-2013
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	We investigate beam pointing dynamics in filamentation in gases driven by high repetition rate femtosecond laser pulses. Upon sudden exposure of a gas to a kilohertz train of filamenting pulses, successive filaments are steered from their original direction to a new stable direction whose equilibrium is determined by a balance among buoyant, viscous, and diffusive processes in the gas. The beam mode is preserved. Results are shown for Xe and air, but are broadly applicable to all configurations employing intense, high repetition rate femtosecond laser pulses in gases.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 USDOE
ISSN:	1094-4087 1094-4087
DOI:	10.1364/OE.21.028980