Revival of femtosecond laser plasma filaments in air by a nanosecond laser.
Short lived plasma channels generated through filamentation of femtosecond laser pulses in air can be revived after several milliseconds by a delayed nanosecond pulse. Electrons initially ionized from oxygen molecules and subsequently captured by neutral oxygen molecules provide the long-lived reservoir of low affinity allowing this process. A Bessel-like nanosecond-duration laser beam can easily detach these weakly bound electrons and multiply them in an avalanche process. We have experimentally demonstrated such revivals over a channel length of 50 cm by focusing the nanosecond laser with an axicon.
Zhou
Bing
B
Teramobile Project, Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Techniques Avancées-Ecole Polytechnique, CNRS UMR 7639, F-91761 Palaiseau Cedex, France.
Akturk
Selcuk
S
Prade
Bernard
B
André
Yves-Bernard
YB
Houard
Aurélien
A
Liu
Yi
Y
Franco
Michel
M
D'Amico
Ciro
C
Salmon
Estelle
E
Hao
Zuo-Qiang
ZQ
Lascoux
Noelle
N
Mysyrowicz
André
A
D000388:Air; D004583:Electrons; D004867:Equipment Design; D007834:Lasers; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D010100:Oxygen / Q000737:chemistry; D013997:Time Factors
D010100:Oxygen