Self-guided propagation of ultrashort IR laser pulses in fused silica.
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.
Tzortzakis
S
S
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
Sudrie
L
L
Franco
M
M
Prade
B
B
Mysyrowicz
A
A
Couairon
A
A
Bergé
L
L