title: Multiple filamentation of terawatt laser pulses in air.
abstract: The filamentation of femtosecond light pulses in air is numerically and experimentally investigated for beam powers reaching several TW. Beam propagation is shown to be driven by the interplay between intense, robust spikes created by the defects of the input beam and random nucleation of light cells. Evolution of the filament patterns can be qualitatively reproduced by an averaged-in-time (2D+1)-dimensional model derived from the propagation equations for ultrashort pulses.
authors.affiliation: Département de Physique Théorique et Appliquée, CEA/DAM Ile de France, B.P. 12, 91680 Bruyères-le-Châtel, France.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bergé
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Skupin
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lederer
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Méjean
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kasparian
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Salmon
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Wolf
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rodriguez
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wöste
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bourayou
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sauerbrey