Femtosecond filamentary modifications in bulk polymer materials

Focusing femtosecond laser pulse produces filamentary modifications inside polymer materials. In this paper, filamentary tracks in poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) are investigated by use of femtosecond pulses from a Ti:sapphire amplifier. The relationship between the formation of a filament and filamentary modification is investigated. The morphology of filamentary modifications is investigated and spectral properties of a propagated pulse are characterized.     

Concatenation of plasma filaments created in air by femtosecond infrared laser pulses

We report the first observation of the attachment of two single plasma filaments created collinearly in the atmosphere by IR femtosecond laser pulses. The linked filamentary structure is electrically conductive and emits sub-THz radiation over its entire length. Concatenation is achieved only for a specific time ordering between the two initial laser pulses. The pulse producing the filament closer to the laser source must be retarded with respect to the other pulse. This special time ordering is attributed to the acceleration of light in a self-guided pulse. Received: 4 March 2003 / Published online: 14 May 2003 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +33-1/6931-9996, E-mail: stzortz@ensta.fr     

Direct phase and amplitude characterization of femtosecond laser pulses undergoing filamentation in air

Measurement of the temporal (spectral) phase and amplitude of a 50 fs laser pulse approaching and exceeding the critical power for self-focusing (P(crit)) in air reveals the formation of an isolated 17 fs pulse at 3P(crit). The dynamics of self-shortening are measured directly in the filament using transient-grating cross-correlation frequency-resolved optical gating with a noble gas serving as the nonlinear medium. Our results support recent filamentary propagation simulations, suggesting that a Kerr-dominated temporal reshaping process toward the end of the filament is largely responsible for the generation of short pulses.     

Femtosecond self-guided atmospheric light strings

The onset and recurrence of multiple filamentary structures in the long-distance propagation of high power femtosecond laser pulses in air displays features analogous to strong turbulence events observed in many areas of physics. However, dissipation is not a key player in regularizing the underlying singular dynamical events. The collapse singularity of the two-dimensional (2D) nonlinear Schrodinger equation is identified as the robust nonlinear mode which both initiates and sustains the waveguide. Physical collapse regularization mechanisms include normal group velocity dispersion and plasma generation in the high intensity nonlinear focal regions. Plasma absorption is weak and the dominant process is the transient generation of a highly localized strongly defocusing lens which evacuates the light behind the leading intense light filament. Consequently the nonlinear waveguide formed is highly dynamic. (c) 2000 American Institute of Physics.     

Observation of large arrays of plasma filaments in air breakdown by 1.5-MW 110-GHz gyrotron pulses

We report the observation of two-dimensional plasma filamentary arrays with more than 100 elements generated during breakdown of air at atmospheric pressure by a focused Gaussian beam from a 1.5-MW, 110-GHz gyrotron operating in 3-micros pulses. Each element is a plasma filament elongated in the electric field direction and regularly spaced about one-quarter wavelength apart in the plane perpendicular to the electric field. The development of the array is explained as a result of diffraction of the beam around the filaments, leading to the sequential generation of high intensity spots, at which new filaments are created, about a quarter wavelength upstream from each existing filament. Electromagnetic wave simulations corroborate this explanation and show very good correlation to the observed pattern of filaments.     

Two-dimensional visualization of growth and burst of the edge-localized filaments in KSTAR H-mode plasmas

The filamentary nature and dynamics of edge-localized modes (ELMs) in the KSTAR high-confinement mode plasmas have been visualized in 2D via electron cyclotron emission imaging. The ELM filaments rotating with a net poloidal velocity are observed to evolve in three distinctive stages: initial linear growth, interim quasisteady state, and final crash. The crash is initiated by a narrow fingerlike perturbation growing radially from a poloidally elongated filament. The filament bursts through this finger, leading to fast and collective heat convection from the edge region into the scrape-off layer, i.e., ELM crash.     

大气压介质阻挡丝状放电时空演化数值模拟

通过数值求解二维流体方程，在均匀的初始条件下研究了大气压丝状放电的整体时空演化.通过模拟可以发现，在丝状放电的时空演化过程中，各条放电通道在不同位置相继发生击穿，且放电通道有遍历整个放电空间的趋势.在一定条件下，放电通道还会发生分裂与合并现象，其中放电通道的分裂导致了放电空间中放电通道的增加，而放电通道的合并则提供了一条放电空间中放电通道减少的途径.研究还表明，介质表面电荷是影响丝状放电整体时空演化的关键因素之一. 关键词： 介质阻挡放电 丝状放电 数值模拟 时空演化     

Tunable ultrashort laser pulses generated through filamentation in gases

Tunable and stable ultrashort laser pulses in the visible spectrum are generated with high efficiency by four-wave mixing process during the filamentation of near-infrared and infrared laser pulses in gases. It is shown that these tunable ultrashort pulses have a very low energy fluctuation and an excellent mode quality due to the processes of intensity clamping and self-filtering in the filament.     

Observation of light filaments induced in air by visible picosecond laser pulses

We report the observation of light filaments produced by a picosecond laser pulse in the visible. The pulse trapped in the filamentary mode experiences large-scale self-phase modulation, with almost 100-fold spectral broadening along with apparent shortening of the leading edge. Spatial-temporal properties of the light filament reveal rather complex propagation dynamics. Received: 7 August 2002 / Revised version: 12 September 2002 / Published online: 11 December 2002 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +370-2/3660-06, E-mail: audrius.dubietis@ff.vu.lt     

Weibel-induced filamentation during an ultrafast laser-driven plasma expansion

The development of current instabilities behind the front of a cylindrically expanding plasma has been investigated experimentally via proton probing techniques. A multitude of tubelike filamentary structures is observed to form behind the front of a plasma created by irradiating solid-density wire targets with a high-intensity (I ~ 10(19) W/cm(2)), picosecond-duration laser pulse. These filaments exhibit a remarkable degree of stability, persisting for several tens of picoseconds, and appear to be magnetized over a filament length corresponding to several filament radii. Particle-in-cell simulations indicate that their formation can be attributed to a Weibel instability driven by a thermal anisotropy of the electron population. We suggest that these results may have implications in astrophysical scenarios, particularly concerning the problem of the generation of strong, spatially extended and sustained magnetic fields in astrophysical jets.     

Current transport in bistable granular structures

Electrical breakdown in GaAs Schottky diodes creates a granular filamentary structure of submicron dimensions between the contacts. The filament exhibits very fast (<2 nsec) electrical switching between stable resistance states. Irrespective of the contact metal, the filament becomes superconducting when in the low-resistance state. Electron transport in all the resistance states is intergrain tunneling between metallic inclusions and is governed by an activation energy. Switching is not based on metal transport.     

Propagation of a filamentary femtosecond laser beam with high intensities at an air-solid interface

The propagation of a filamentary laser beam at an air-glass surface is studied by setting the incident angle satisfying the total reflection condition. The images of the trajectory of the filamentary laser beam inside the sample and the output far-field spatial profiles are measured with varying incident laser pulse energies. Different from the general total reflection, a transmitted laser beam is detected along the propagation direction of the incident laser beam. The energy ratio of the transmitted laser beam depends on the pulse energies of the incident laser beam. The background energy reservoir surrounding the filament core can break the law of total reflection at the air-glass surface, resulting in the regeneration of the transmitted laser beam.     

On the Acceleration of Energetic Cosmic Particles by Electrostatic Double Layers

The capability of electrostatic double layers of accelerating charged particles to high energies is investigated. Starting from a one-dimensional relativistic double-layer model a two-dimensional relativistic double layer in a current filament is studied. It is found that the filamentary double layer has a maximum potential drop that depends both on the magnitude of the filamentary current and on the composition of the layer. The results are applied to two cosmic double layers?one in a solar electric circuit and another in a galactic circuit. If the layers are composed of protons and electrons, these particles may be accelerated to 1011 eV in the solar layer and to 1014 eV in the galactic layer. It is suggested that the solar double layer may account for the acceleration of solar cosmic rays while the galactic layer may contribute to the generation of cosmic radiation.     

Third-harmonic generation and self-channeling in air using high-power femtosecond laser pulses

It is shown, both theoretically and experimentally, that during laser pulse filamentation in air an intense ultrashort third-harmonic pulse is generated forming a two-colored filament. The third-harmonic pulse maintains both its peak intensity and energy over distances much longer than the characteristic coherence length. We argue that this is due to a nonlinear phase-locking mechanism between the two pulses in the filament and is independent of the initial material wave-vector mismatch. A rich spatiotemporal propagation dynamics of the third-harmonic pulse is predicted. Potential applications of this phenomenon to other parametric processes are discussed.     

On certain properties of filamentary RF discharge

Results of studying the plasma-formation dynamics of the capacitive rf discharge in inert gases and in the air at atmospheric pressure are presented. Measurements have been conducted using an original technique for determining the sizes of luminous objects with an emission-line spectrum. The conditions for a transition from a torch discharge to a filamentary one are found. A qualitative model of the formation of a filament discharge taking into account its inherent electromagnetic field is offered.     

Interaction of femtosecond light filaments with obscurants in aerosols

The interaction of ultrashort laser pulses with opaque droplets in the atmosphere is examined numerically. Intense filaments resulting from the balance between self-focusing and ionization of air molecules are shown to be robust against obscurants sized up to 2/3 of the filament diameter. (3D+1)-dimensional numerical simulations confirm recent experimental data [F. Courvoisier et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 83, 213 (2003)]. The filament is rapidly rebuilt with minimal loss of energy over a few cm after the interaction region. The replenishment of the pulse mainly proceeds from the nonlinear attractor responsible for the formation of a spatial soliton modeling the filament core.     

Saturation of the filament density of ultrashort intense laser pulses in air

We experimentally and numerically characterize multiple filamentation of laser pulses with incident intensities of a few TW/cm². Propagating 100 TW laser pulses over 42 m in air, we observe a new propagation regime where the filament density saturates. As also evidenced by numerical simulations in the same intensity range, the total number of filaments is governed by geometric constraints and mutual interactions among filaments rather than by the available power in the beam.     

Filamentary actuation on the surface of bodies contoured by high-speed flows

In this study, we focus our attention on the ability of a filamentary discharge to affect the shock waves patterns generated by a test model of diamond shape placed in a high-speed airflow. Our results indicate that no significant changes could be detected at moderate supersonic regimes (Ma≈1.8) or at transonic conditions (Ma≈0.8) even when the filament traversed the shock.     

Simulations of filamentary structure in an edge-localized mode burst on EAST using BOUT++ code

In this paper, simulation on the filamentary structure for the low-hybrid wave heating H-mode on experimental advanced superconducting tokamak (EAST) is carried out for the first time using BOUT++, and the speed and width of edge localized mode (ELM) filaments have been evaluated during the simulation. The evolutions of the ELM filaments are illustrated temporally and spatially. Then the results are compared with the experimental observations. It is found that at the peak gradient region in the outer midplane, the radial speed of the filaments is changed frequently and varied from 0.016 to 0.38 km/s. For the contrast, the poloidal speed oscillates in a narrower range of 0.68–0.88 km/s. The calculation results show the width of ELM filaments oscillates during the simulation, the minimum width is around 8.3 mm, and the maximum value is 41.24 mm. The distributions of the ELM filament widths with the radial position indicate the width is decreased with the radial position. Furthermore, by tracing one single filament, the radial width is decreased gradually when the filament is moving outward, which is also consistent with experiment conclusion. The consistencies also indicate the availability and practicability of the six-field two-fluid model of BOUT++ on the study of ELMs.