title: Temporal self-restoration of compressed optical filaments.
abstract: We numerically investigate the propagation of a self-compressed optical filament through a gas-glass-gas interface. Few-cycle light pulses survive a sudden and short order-of-magnitude increase of nonlinearity and dispersion, even when all conservative estimates predict temporal spreading or spatial breakup. Spatiotemporal distortions are shown to self-heal upon further propagation when the pulse refocuses in the second gas. This self-healing mechanism has important implications for pulse compression techniques handled by filamentation and explains the robustness of such sources.
authors.affiliation: CEA-DIF, DPTA, Bruyères-le-Châtel, 91297 Arpajon cedex, France.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bergé
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Skupin
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Steinmeyer