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Formation of a conducting channel in air by self-guided femtosecond laser pulses

1999; American Physical Society; Volume: 60; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1103/physreve.60.r3505

1538-4519

Stelios Tzortzakis, M. Franco, Yves-Bernard André, A. Chiron, B. Lamouroux, B. Prade, A. Mysyrowicz,

Advanced Fiber Laser Technologies

We report a drastic reduction of air resistivity following the passage of a self-guided femtosecond pulse from a Ti:sapphire laser system at 800 nm with energies per pulse between 1 and 14 mJ and a pulse duration of 120 fs. Connected plasma filaments with a length that can exceed 150 cm are created by these pulses. The presence of a conducting plasma channel results from multiphoton ionization of air molecules in the filament core.