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Control of filament branching in air by astigmatically focused femtosecond laser pulses

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Abstract

We report on the generation of branched optical filaments in air by astigmatically focusing intense femtosecond laser pulses with a pair of orthogonal cylindrical lenses. It is found that the branching angle can be controlled by changing the distance between the two foci of the cylindrical lenses. The evolution of the filament is systematically investigated by capturing beam cross-section profiles at different locations along its propagation direction. The experimental observation is successfully reproduced by theoretical simulations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 800-211, Shanghai, 201800, China

    Y. Fu, W. Chu, J. Ni, H. Xiong, H. Xu, J. Yao, B. Zeng, Y. Cheng & Z. Xu

  2. Institute of Modern Optics, Nankai University, Key Laboratory of Opto-electronic Information Science and Technology, Education Ministry of China, Tianjin, 300071, China

    H. Gao & W. Liu

  3. Centre d’Optique, Photonique et Laser (COPL) and Département de physique, de génie physique et d’optique, Université Laval, Québec, Québec, G1K 7P4, Canada

    S. L. Chin

  4. Laser Technology Laboratory, RIKEN, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako-shi, Saitama, 351-0198, Japan

    Y. Fu

Authors
  1. Y. Fu
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  2. H. Gao
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  3. W. Chu
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  4. J. Ni
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  5. H. Xiong
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  6. H. Xu
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  7. J. Yao
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  9. W. Liu
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  10. Y. Cheng
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  11. Z. Xu
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  12. S. L. Chin
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Correspondence to Y. Cheng.

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Fu, Y., Gao, H., Chu, W. et al. Control of filament branching in air by astigmatically focused femtosecond laser pulses. Appl. Phys. B 103, 435–439 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-011-4424-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-011-4424-4

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