Light bullets from femtosecond filamentation

Physical Review A, 2003

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.

Laser Physics, 2012

We investigated the evolution of femtosecond laser pulses at different wavelengths corresponding to normal, zero, and anomalous regimes of group velocity dispersion (GVD) in fused silica. The laser pulse filamentation in different GVD regimes under the same similarity parameters was first considered. It was established numerically that the scenario of the pulse filamentation depends both on temporal factors, which are determined by pulse GVD and self phase modulation, and spatial factors associated with Kerr self focus ing and plasma defocusing. In presence of strong normal GVD the dispersive stretching causes, a pulse power decrease followed by lowering of the intensity in filament, electron density reduction in plasma channel, and suppressing of the refocusing. For zero GVD the multipeak regime of radiation propagation is realized in the filament as a result of recurring self focusings of powerful pulse tail, which was defocused in laser plasma. When GVD is anomalous a sequence of "light bullets" with duration about 10 fs forms in the filament. And the peak intensity in "light bullet" stays the same ≈ 5 × 10 13 W/cm 2 . In the regime of anomalous GVD power is transferred from the pulse edges to its center, where the repeated self focusings occur and form a "light bul let" sequence.

Laser Systems for Applications, 2011

Journal of the Optical Society of America B, 2013

Filamentation of focused UV and IR femtosecond laser pulses and plasma channel formation governed by variable wavefront distortions was experimentally and numerically studied. A deformable mirror was used to control the plasma channel length by introducing a spherical aberration into the initial transverse spatial distribution of a femtosecond laser pulse. An at least double increase of the plasma channel length was observed with increasing deformation of the mirror. Numerical calculations show that the hat-like phase shape of the aberration ensures that the energy of the initial laser pulse remains confined for a longer distance within the limited transverse size of the filament.

Optics letters, 2002

Journal of the Optical Society of America B, 2016

Filamentation during simultaneous space-time focusing in bulk fused silica is investigated numerically. We model the use of a pair of concentric gratings to transform a common femtosecond laser pulse with Gaussian spatial profile into a radially chirped, annular beam shape that is focused into the bulk of silica by a lens. By varying the energy and/or time-chirp of the incident pulse, we capture the pulse dynamics and material response that yields material modification and damage in the nonlinear focus. The results show rich pulse dynamics, enhanced damage/modification site localization, and suggest novel approaches to laser machining of solids.

2009

This chapter concerns with the experimental observations and theoretical investigations on the propagation of intense femtosecond pulses in water and fused silica. It emphasizes spontaneous transformation of a beam into a conical (Bessel-like) wave during the filamentary propagation in media with nonlinear losses. This transformation constitutes an interpretation of the energy reservoir surrounding the high intensity central core of the filament. The adopted model is shown as being able to explain related phenomena such as the formation of multiple filaments and that of X-waves, observed experimentally in both water and fused silica.

Optics Express, 2008

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.

Physical Review A, 2010

We show numerically that by using periodic lattices the filamentation of intense femtosecond laser pulses, otherwise a result of competing nonlinear effects, can be well controlled with respect to its properties. The diffraction induced by the lattice provides a regularizing mechanism to the nonlinear self-action effects involved in filamentation. We demonstrate a new propagation regime of intense lattice solitons bridging the field of spatial solitons with that of femtosecond laser filamentation. The effective filamentation control is expected to have an important impact on numerous applications.