Quasi-steady-state air plasma channel produced by a femtosecond laser pulse sequence.
A long air plasma channel can be formed by filamentation of intense femtosecond laser pulses. However, the lifetime of the plasma channel produced by a single femtosecond laser pulse is too short (only a few nanoseconds) for many potential applications based on the conductivity of the plasma channel. Therefore, prolonging the lifetime of the plasma channel is one of the key challenges in the research of femtosecond laser filamentation. In this study, a unique femtosecond laser source was developed to produce a high-quality femtosecond laser pulse sequence with an interval of 2.9 ns and a uniformly distributed single-pulse energy. The metre scale quasi-steady-state plasma channel with a 60-80 ns lifetime was formed by such pulse sequences in air. The simulation study for filamentation of dual femtosecond pulses indicated that the plasma channel left by the previous pulse was weakly affected the filamentation of the next pulse in sequence under our experimental conditions.
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Xin
X
Lu
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Shi-You
SY
Chen
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Jing-Long
JL
Ma
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Lei
L
Hou
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Guo-Qian
GQ
Liao
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Jin-Guang
JG
Wang
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.|Department of Physics, Heze University, Heze, 274015, China.
Yu-Jing
YJ
Han
Academy of Opto-Electronics, Chinese academy of sciences, Beijing, 100094, China.
Xiao-Long
XL
Liu
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Hao
H
Teng
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Hai-Nian
HN
Han
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.|IFSA Collaborative Innovation Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
Yu-Tong
YT
Li
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.|IFSA Collaborative Innovation Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
Li-Ming
LM
Chen
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Zhi-Yi
ZY
Wei
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.|Key Laboratory for Laser Plasmas (Ministry of Education) and Department of Physics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.|IFSA Collaborative Innovation Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
Jie
J
Zhang