Formation of a conducting channel in air by self-guided femtosecond laser pulses.
We report a drastic reduction of air resistivity following the passage of a self-guided femtosecond pulse from a Ti:sapphire laser system at 800 nm with energies per pulse between 1 and 14 mJ and a pulse duration of 120 fs. Connected plasma filaments with a length that can exceed 150 cm are created by these pulses. The presence of a conducting plasma channel results from multiphoton ionization of air molecules in the filament core.
Tzortzakis
S
S
Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée, CNRS UMR No. 7639, ENSTA-Ecole Polytechnique, Chemin de la Hunière, F-91761 Palaiseau Cedex, France.
Franco
M A
MA
André
Y B
YB
Chiron
A
A
Lamouroux
B
B
Prade
B S
BS
Mysyrowicz
A
A