Characteristics of filamentation in ZK7 glass by negatively chirped femtosecond laser pulses

【摘要】 The filamentation characteristics of femtosecond laser pulses in ZK7 glass are in- vestigated experimentally as a function of initial negative chirps. It is found that the filament threshold power grows rapidly and the filament length extends over a long distance with increasing initial temporal chirps. The measurement of supercon- tinuum reveals that the plasma generation process within filamentation becomes weaker as the initial negative chirp increases, leading to a self-guiding long light channel dominated by Kerr nonlinearity. The interference of transverse rings in multifilamentation of the chirped laser pulses is observed as well. Analyses and discussions give an interpretation of this chirp-induced ionization-free filamenta- tion. These results indicate that initial chirps will play a crucial role in the filament formation of ultrashort laser pulses in transparent media.更多还原

【Abstract】 The filamentation characteristics of femtosecond laser pulses in ZK7 glass are in- vestigated experimentally as a function of initial negative chirps. It is found that the filament threshold power grows rapidly and the filament length extends over a long distance with increasing initial temporal chirps. The measurement of supercon- tinuum reveals that the plasma generation process within filamentation becomes weaker as the initial negative chirp increases, leading to a self-guiding long light channel dominated by Kerr nonlinearity. The interference of transverse rings in multifilamentation of the chirped laser pulses is observed as well. Analyses and discussions give an interpretation of this chirp-induced ionization-free filamenta- tion. These results indicate that initial chirps will play a crucial role in the filament formation of ultrashort laser pulses in transparent media.更多还原