Ultrashort laser pulse filamentation from spontaneous X-Wave formation in air

Self-Focused Pulse Propagation Is Mediated by Spatiotemporal Optical Vortices

We show that the dynamics of high-intensity laser pulses undergoing self-focused propagation in a nonlinear medium can be understood in terms of the topological constraints imposed by the formation and evolution of spatiotemporal optical vortices (STOVs). STOVs are born from pointlike phase defects on the sides of the pulse nucleated by spatiotemporal phase shear. These defects grow into closed loops of spatiotemporal vorticity that initially exclude the pulse propagation axis, but then reconnect to form a pair of toroidal vortex rings that wrap around it. STOVs constrain the intrapulse flow of electromagnetic energy, controlling the focusing-defocusing cycles and pulse splitting inherent to nonlinear pulse propagation. We illustrate this in two widely studied but very different regimes, relativistic self-focusing in plasma and nonrelativistic self-focusing in gas, demonstrating that STOVs mediate nonlinear propagation irrespective of the detailed physics.

Multiharmonic Spanning Nonlinear X-wave: An Asymptotic State of Extreme Long Wave Infrared Dispersive Shock Regularization

We predict the emergence of novel X-waves emitted as a consequence of extreme dispersive shock regularization of an intense long wave few cycle pulse propagating through a weakly dispersive medium. This robust propagation-invariant solution to Maxwell's equations appears as the asymptotic state in the high harmonic conversion when the pump propagates in a strongly nonlinear weakly dispersive regime, while the weakly nonlinear conical emission is dominated by chromatic dispersion.

4D spatio-temporal electric field characterization of ultrashort light pulses undergoing filamentation

We present an experimental method capable of capturing the complete spatio-temporal dynamics of filamenting ultrashort laser pulses. By employing spatially resolved Fourier transform spectrometry in combination with the capability to terminate the filament at any length, we can follow the nonlinear dynamics in four dimensions, i.e. the transverse domain, time and filament length. Our method thus not only enables the full characterization of the filamentation process throughout its evolution, but also allows to identify and select laser pulses with desired parameters.

Femtosecond anti-Stokes conical emission in BK-7 glass and O and E-wave calcite

The angle of anti-Stokes conical emission (CE) is experimentally measured in the frequency shift span of 2000cm^-1 to 9000cm^-1. The experiment was performed using a 800 nm 50 fs laser pump in samples of BK-7 glass and calcite in both the O and E-wave configurations. The experimental results of angular emission are then compared to three competing models: the Alfano-Shapiro four wave mixing (FWM) model from 1970, the Luther FWM model from 1994, and the Faccio X-wave model from 2004. Results indicate that in all samples and configurations tested, the original FWM has the best agreement with experimental results in the anti-Stokes span.

Influence of tunnel ionization to third-harmonic generation of infrared femtosecond laser pulses in air

Here we present an experimental as well as theoretical study of third-harmonic generation in tightly focused femtosecond filaments in air at the wavelength of \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$1.5 \,\upmu \hbox {m}$$\end{document}1.5μm. At low intensities, longitudinal phase matching is dominating in the formation of 3rd harmonics, whereas at higher intensities locked X-waves are formed. We provide the arguments that the X-wave formation is governed mainly by the tunnel-like ionization dynamics rather than by the multiphoton one. Despite of this fact, the impact of the ionization-induced nonlinearity is lower than the one from bound–bound transitions at all intensities.

Short-pulse lasers for weather control

Filamentation of ultra-short TW-class lasers recently opened new perspectives in atmospheric research. Laser filaments are self-sustained light structures of 0.1-1 mm in diameter, spanning over hundreds of meters in length, and producing a low density plasma (10¹⁵-10¹⁷ cm^-3) along their path. They stem from the dynamic balance between Kerr self-focusing and defocusing by the self-generated plasma and/or non-linear polarization saturation. While non-linearly propagating in air, these filamentary structures produce a coherent supercontinuum (from 230 nm to 4 µm, for a 800 nm laser wavelength) by self-phase modulation (SPM), which can be used for remote 3D-monitoring of atmospheric components by Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging). However, due to their high intensity (10¹³-10¹⁴ W cm^-2), they also modify the chemical composition of the air via photo-ionization and photo-dissociation of the molecules and aerosols present in the laser path. These unique properties were recently exploited for investigating the capability of modulating some key atmospheric processes, like lightning from thunderclouds, water vapor condensation, fog formation and dissipation, and light scattering (albedo) from high altitude clouds for radiative forcing management. Here we review recent spectacular advances in this context, achieved both in the laboratory and in the field, reveal their underlying mechanisms, and discuss the applicability of using these new non-linear photonic catalysts for real scale weather control.

Angle-resolved conical emission spectra from filamentation in a solid with an Airy pattern and a Gaussian laser beam

Filamentation dynamics in fused silica are investigated using an Airy pattern and a Gaussian laser beam. The angle-resolved conical emission spectra are measured and compared with the predictions of several models. Our experimental observations are consistent with the X-waves model in both cases. This indicates that both laser beams spontaneously evolve into nonlinear X-waves and suggests a universal evolution of filaments in fused silica, regardless of the initial laser beam profile.

Conical third-harmonic generation of optical vortex through ultrashort laser filamentation in air

We experimentally generate third-harmonic (TH) vortex beams in air by the filamentation of femtosecond pulses produced in a lab-built Ti:sapphire chirped pulse amplifier. The generated TH beam profile is shown to evolve with increasing pump energy. At a sufficiently high pump energy, we observe a conical TH emission of the fundamental vortex and confirm that the conical radiation follows the conservation law for orbital angular momentum. We further investigate the far-field angularly resolved spectra of the TH wave to analyze the conical emission angle. We theoretically verify that the formation of the conical TH vortex results from the phase-matching between the fundamental and TH waves during the filamentation process.

Polarization evolution of ultrashort pulses in air

Measurements of polarization of filamenting light pulses at 800 nm are presented. Electronic nonlinearity, molecular alignment and nonlinear losses all contribute to modify the polarization of a femtosecond filamenting pulse. The polarization is modified in each stage of preparation, filamentation and divergence after the filament.

Self-reconstructing spatiotemporal light bullets

We show that spatiotemporal light bullets generated by self-focusing and filamentation of 100 fs, 1.8 μm pulses in a dielectric medium with anomalous group velocity dispersion (sapphire) are extremely robust to external perturbations. We present the experimental results supported by the numerical simulations that demonstrate complete spatiotemporal self-reconstruction of the light bullet after hitting an obstacle, which blocks its intense core carrying the self-compressed pulse, in nonlinear as well as in linear (free-space) propagation regimes.

The effect of propagation in air on the filament spectrum

Filamentation studies traditionally start from letting a beam focus in air. We present filament studies with control over the preparation propagation, in air or vacuum, using an aerodynamic window. The spectral content of the filament strongly depends on its preparation medium.

Conical emission from laser filaments and higher-order Kerr effect in air

We numerically investigate the conical emission (CE) from ultrashort laser filaments, both considering and disregarding the higher-order Kerr effect (HOKE). While the consideration of HOKE has almost no influence on the predicted CE from collimated beams, differences arise for tightly focused beams. This difference is attributed to the different relative contributions of the nonlinear focus and of the modulational instability over the whole filament length.

Quantum radiation from superluminal refractive-index perturbations

We analyze in detail photon production induced by a superluminal refractive-index perturbation in realistic experimental operating conditions. The interaction between the refractive-index perturbation and the quantum vacuum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field leads to the production of photon pairs.

Terahertz pulse emission optimization from tailored femtosecond laser pulse filamentation in air

We study the generation of intense terahertz pulses produced by two-color laser pulse filamentation in air. We tailor the filamentation process and the produced plasma strings and study how the generated terahertz field is modified. An important terahertz pulse shortening is found for plasma strings with uniform electron density.

Experimental energy-density flux characterization of ultrashort laser pulse filaments

Visualization of the energy density flux gives a unique insight into the propagation properties of complex ultrashort pulses. This analysis, formerly relegated to numerical investigations, is here shown to be an invaluable experimental diagnostic tool. By retrieving the spatio-temporal amplitude and phase we experimentally obtain the energy density flux within complex ultrashort pulses generated by filamentation in a nonlinear Kerr medium.

Ultraviolet-visible conical emission by multiple laser filaments

We characterized the angular distribution of the supercontinuum emission from multiple infrared laser filaments propagating in air over long distances, from the infrared (1080 nm) to ultraviolet (225 nm). These experimental data suggest that the X-Waves modeling or Cerenkov emission, rather than phase matching of four-wave mixing, could explain the conical emission. We also estimate the total light conversion efficiency from the original laser wavelength into the white-light continuum.

Spectrogram representation of pulse self compression by filamentation

We report on numerical simulations and experiments of pulse self-compression by filamentation. Spectral and temporal evolution during ultrashort-pulse laser filamentation can be intuitively represented using spectrograms, which display spectra at different time delays of a gate pulse. This representation makes evident the features of self-compression by filamentation, namely spectral broadening and pulse shortening. In addition, it allows for an analysis of the spectral phase during the nonlinear propagation. In our simulations we observe occurrence of negative chirp over a few cm before the shortest pulse is obtained during filamentation; this provides an important basis for the understanding of the mechanisms leading to self-compressed filaments. We attribute the negative chirp to spatio-temporal reshaping due to the competition between self-phase modulation and group velocity dispersion. We show that the plasma induced dispersion plays a minor role in establishing the negative chirp.

Spontaneous emergence of pulses with constant carrier-envelope phase in femtosecond filamentation

We study the possibility to obtain high-intensity pulses that maintain a constant Carrier Envelope Phase (CEP) during propagation in dispersive media, i.e. pulses such that the carrier-wave offset with respect to the main intensity peak remains fixed. Our numerical experiments strongly suggest that pulse splitting and X-wave formation within femtosecond laser pulse filamentation leads to the formation of "constant-CEP" within well-defined regions inside the filament. We study the creation of "constant- CEP" pulses in both gasseous and condensed media showing that this is a generic feature of filaments.

Kerr-induced spontaneous Bessel beam formation in the regime of strong two-photon absorption

We study the effect of Two-Photon Absorption (TPA) nonlinear losses on Gaussian pulses, with power that exceeds the critical power for self-focusing, propagating in bulk kerr media. Experiments performed in fused silica and silicon highlight a spontaneous reshaping of the input pulse into a pulsed Bessel beam. A filament is formed in which sub-diffractive propagation is sustained by the Bessel-nature of the pulse.