title: Multifilamentation transmission through fog.
abstract: The influence of atmospheric aerosols on the filamentation patterns created by TW laser beams over 10 m propagation scales is investigated, both experimentally and numerically. From the experimental point of view, it is shown that dense fogs dissipate quasi-linearly the energy in the beam envelope and diminish the number of filaments in proportion. This number is strongly dependent on the power content of the beam. The power per filament is evaluated to about 5 critical powers for self-focusing in air. From the theoretical point of view, numerical computations confirm that a dense fog composed of micrometric droplets acts like a linear dissipator of the wave envelope. Beams subject to linear damping or to collisions with randomly-distributed opaque droplets are compared.
authors.affiliation: Teramobile, LASIM, UMR CNRS 5579, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, 43 bd du 11 Novembre 1918, F-69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Méjean
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kasparian
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Salmon
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Frey
authors.forename: J-P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Wolf
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Skupin
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vinçotte
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nuter
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Champeaux
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bergé