Plasma formation dynamics within a water microdroplet on femtosecond time scales.
We demonstrate that a highly confined plasma inclusion is formed inside a micrometric water droplet that is excited by a femtosecond laser. An 800-nm laser pulse generates a plasma inclusion by laser-induced breakdown that is subsequently probed by the elastic scattering of a second (400-nm) time-delayed ultrashort pulse. For a 25-microm-radius droplet and an incident intensity of 7 x 10(12) W/cm2 the radius of the highly localized plasma is 1.9 +/- 0.4 microm. We probed the plasma formation dynamics on femtosecond time scales by varying the delay between the pump and the probe pulses. Good agreement with numerical simulations of the process was found.
Courvoisier
François
F
Laboratoire de Spectrométrie Ionique et Moléculaire (LASIM) (Unité Mixte de Recherche 5579), Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, 43 Boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918, F-69622 Villeurbanne, France.
Boutou
Véronique
V
Favre
Catherine
C
Hill
Steven C
SC
Wolf
Jean-Pierre
JP