title: Polarization separator created by a filament in air.
abstract: We demonstrate that a femtosecond laser pulse-induced filament can act as a "polarization separator" for a copropagating femtosecond probe pulse. The probe component with polarization parallel to the pump is guided along the propagation axis through the cross interactions with the pump pulse. And the probe component with polarization orthogonal to that of the pump is diffracted out into an outer ring by the plasma. The extinction ratio (I(probe)(min) / I(probe)(max)) along the propagation axis is better than 1:20.
authors.affiliation: Centre d'Optique, Photonique et Laser (COPL) and Département de Physique, de Génie Physique et d'Optique, Université Laval, Québec, Québec G1V 0A6, Canada. yanping.chen.1@ulaval.ca
authors.forename: Yanping
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Claude
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Marceau
authors.forename: Francis
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Théberge
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Châteauneuf
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dubois
authors.forename: See Leang
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Chin