中国物理B ›› 2004, Vol. 13 ›› Issue (3): 359-363.doi: 10.1088/1009-1963/13/3/017

• CLASSICAL AREAS OF PHENOMENOLOGY • 上一篇    下一篇

Optical breakdown and filamentation of femtosecond laser pulses propagating in air at a kHz repetition rate

段作梁, 陈建平, 李儒新, 林礼煌, 徐至展   

  1. Laboratory for High Intensity Optics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
  • 收稿日期:2003-01-17 修回日期:2003-05-08 出版日期:2005-07-06 发布日期:2005-07-06
  • 基金资助:
    Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No 29890210), the National Basic Research Special Foundation (Grant No G1999075200) and Shanghai Foundation of Science & Technology (Grant No 0159nm022).

Optical breakdown and filamentation of femtosecond laser pulses propagating in air at a kHz repetition rate

Duan Zuo-Liang (段作梁), Chen Jian-Ping (陈建平), Li Ru-Xin (李儒新), Lin Li-Huang (林礼煌), Xu Zhi-Zhan (徐至展)   

  1. Laboratory for High Intensity Optics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
  • Received:2003-01-17 Revised:2003-05-08 Online:2005-07-06 Published:2005-07-06
  • Supported by:
    Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No 29890210), the National Basic Research Special Foundation (Grant No G1999075200) and Shanghai Foundation of Science & Technology (Grant No 0159nm022).

摘要: We report the experiments on the optical breakdown and filamentation of femtosecond laser pulses propagating in air at a kHz repetition rate and with several hundreds micro-joule-energy. A 10m-long filament and its breakup and merging at the nonlinear focal region produced by modulational instability of femtosecond laser pulses in air are observed. A simple model based on the nonlinear Schr?dinger equation coupled with multiphoton ionization law is presented to explain the several experimental results.

Abstract: We report the experiments on the optical breakdown and filamentation of femtosecond laser pulses propagating in air at a kHz repetition rate and with several hundreds micro-joule-energy. A 10m-long filament and its breakup and merging at the nonlinear focal region produced by modulational instability of femtosecond laser pulses in air are observed. A simple model based on the nonlinear Schr?dinger equation coupled with multiphoton ionization law is presented to explain the several experimental results.

Key words: filamentation, Kerr self-focusing, optical-breakdown

中图分类号:  (Efficiency, stability, gain, and other operational parameters)

  • 42.60.Lh
42.60.Jf (Beam characteristics: profile, intensity, and power; spatial pattern formation) 42.65.Hw (Phase conjugation; photorefractive and Kerr effects) 52.35.Py (Macroinstabilities (hydromagnetic, e.g., kink, fire-hose, mirror, ballooning, tearing, trapped-particle, flute, Rayleigh-Taylor, etc.)) 52.38.Hb (Self-focussing, channeling, and filamentation in plasmas)