Spectral dependence of purely-Kerr driven filamentation in air and argon

W. Ettoumi (1) , P. Béjot (2) , Y. Petit (1) , V. Loriot (2) , E. Hertz (2) , O. Faucher (2) , B. Lavorel (2) , J. Kasparian (1) , J.-P. Wolf (1)

1 GAP - Group of Applied Physics [Geneva]
2 ICB - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne

Based on numerical simulations, we show that higher-order nonlinear indices (up to n_8 and n_10, respectively) of air and argon have a dominant contribution to both focusing and defocusing in the self-guiding of ultrashort laser pulses over most of the spectrum. Plasma generation and filamentation are therefore decoupled. As a consequence, ultraviolet wavelength may not be the optimal wavelengths for applications requiring to maximize ionization.

Keywords: Laser filamentation; Molecular alignment; Femtosecond phenomena; Plasmas; Ultrafast nonlinear optics; Self-focusing; Optical Kerr effect

Domains: Atomic Physics [physics.atom-ph]

W. Ettoumi, P. Béjot, Y. Petit, V. Loriot, E. Hertz, et al.. Spectral dependence of purely-Kerr driven filamentation in air and argon. Physical Review A : Atomic, molecular, and optical physics [1990-2015], 2010, 82, pp.033826. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevA.82.033826⟩. ⟨hal-00560341⟩