title: Long plasma channels generated by femtosecond laser pulses.
abstract: Generation of a long plasma channel by femtosecond laser pulses is investigated. The results show that the balance between the nonlinear self-focusing of the laser beam and plasma defocusing forms a long plasma channel, which guides the laser beam to propagate a long distance in air. This phenomenon can be used to trigger lightning.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Optical Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, China.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Y J
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Z Y
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Wei