title: Self-guided propagation of ultrashort IR laser pulses in fused silica.
abstract: We report self-guided propagation of ultrashort IR laser pulses in fused silica over several Rayleigh lengths. Self-guiding is accompanied by pulse splitting and time compression. Numerical simulations involving pulse self-focusing, temporal dispersion, and multiphoton ionization are found to be in good agreement with the experimental results. They show that a quasidynamic equilibrium between multiphoton ionization and self-focusing drives the filamentation process, while temporal dispersion plays a negligible role.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée, CNRS UMR 7639, Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Techniques Avancées-Ecole Polytechnique, Chemin de la Hunière, F-91761 Palaiseau Cedex, France. stzortz@enstay
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tzortzakis
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sudrie
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Franco
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Prade
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mysyrowicz
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Couairon
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bergé