Peculiarities of filamentation of sharply focused ultrashort laser pulses in air

Peculiarities of the self-focusing and filamentation of high-power femtosecond laser pulses in air have been experimentally and theoretically studied under conditions of broad variation of the beam focusing parameter. The influence of the numerical aperture (NA) of the initial radiation focusing on the main characteristics of laser-induced plasma columns (characteristic transverse size, length, and concentration of free electrons) is considered. It is established that, for a rigid (NA > 0.05) initial laser beam focusing, the transverse size of the plasma channel ceases to decrease at a level of R _pl ≈ 2–4 μm as a result of strong refraction of radiation on the plasma formed at the focal waist, which prevents further contraction of the laser beam due to its focusing and self-focusing.