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Energy transmittance of focused femtosecond pulses at different air pressures

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Abstract

Transmission of intense femtosecond laser pulses in air is accompanied by energy depletion. By measuring the transmitted spectra of the focused femtosecond pulses in air, we study the influence of air pressure and initial pulse energy on the spectra around the central wavelength (800 nm) after the interaction of the focused femtosecond laser with air. On this basis, the energy transmittance of the central wavelength of the femtosecond pulses is obtained. It is found that as the air pressure is lower than 1 kPa, the transmitted spectra of focused femtosecond pulses change with the pressure, but there is almost no energy depletion, while as the air pressure is higher than 1 kPa, femtosecond filamentation occurs and the energy transmittance of the central wavelength of the femtosecond pulses decreases with the increase of air pressure and pulse energy. According to the different regimes (i.e., nonfilamentation, and filamentation regimes), we discuss the effect of energy conversion and transfer on the energy transmittance. This work can help to understand the energy depletion during the transmission of ultrashort intense laser pulses in air and provide a guidance for the practical applications of femtosecond filamentation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Atomic and Molecular Physics, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, China

    Suyu Li, Miao Yu, Xiaoming Cai, He Zhang & Mingxing Jin

  2. Research Center for Intelligent Transportation, Zhejiang Lab, Hangzhou, 311121, China

    Suyu Li

  3. State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201800, China

    He Zhang

  4. Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130033, China

    Jiabin Wu

Authors
  1. Suyu Li
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  2. Miao Yu
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  3. Xiaoming Cai
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  4. He Zhang
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  5. Mingxing Jin
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Correspondence to Suyu Li.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

This work has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos.11704145 and 11974138).

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Li, S., Yu, M., Cai, X. et al. Energy transmittance of focused femtosecond pulses at different air pressures. Optoelectron. Lett. 19, 605–613 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11801-023-3037-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11801-023-3037-6

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