Ultrafast imaging the light-speed propagation of a focused femtosecond laser pulse in air and its ionized electron dynamics and plasma-induced pulse reshaping

Yanwu Yu; Lan Jiang; Qiang Cao; Xueshong Shi; Qingsong Wang; Guoyan Wang; Yongfeng Lu

doi:10.1007/s00339-016-9773-8

Ultrafast imaging the light-speed propagation of a focused femtosecond laser pulse in air and its ionized electron dynamics and plasma-induced pulse reshaping

Yanwu Yu
, Lan Jiang^*
, Qiang Cao
, Xueshong Shi
, Qingsong Wang
, Guoyan Wang
, Yongfeng Lu

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Mechanical Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

14 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The light-speed propagation of a focused femtosecond (fs) laser pulse in air was recorded by a pump–probe shadowgraph imaging technique with femtosecond time resolution. The ultrafast dynamics of the laser-ionized electrons were studied, which revealed a strong reshaping of the laser field due to laser–air nonlinear interaction. The influence of laser fluence and focusing conditions on the pulse reshaping was studied, and it was found that: (1) double foci are formed due to the refocusing effect when the laser fluence is higher than 500 J/cm² and the focusing numeric aperture (NA) is higher than 0.30; and (2) a higher NA focusing lens can better inhibit the prefocusing effect and nonlinear distortion in the Gaussian beam waist.

Original language	English
Article number	205
Journal	Applied Physics A: Materials Science and Processing
Volume	122
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-016-9773-8
Publication status	Published - 1 Mar 2016

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title = "Ultrafast imaging the light-speed propagation of a focused femtosecond laser pulse in air and its ionized electron dynamics and plasma-induced pulse reshaping",

abstract = "The light-speed propagation of a focused femtosecond (fs) laser pulse in air was recorded by a pump–probe shadowgraph imaging technique with femtosecond time resolution. The ultrafast dynamics of the laser-ionized electrons were studied, which revealed a strong reshaping of the laser field due to laser–air nonlinear interaction. The influence of laser fluence and focusing conditions on the pulse reshaping was studied, and it was found that: (1) double foci are formed due to the refocusing effect when the laser fluence is higher than 500 J/cm2 and the focusing numeric aperture (NA) is higher than 0.30; and (2) a higher NA focusing lens can better inhibit the prefocusing effect and nonlinear distortion in the Gaussian beam waist.",

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T1 - Ultrafast imaging the light-speed propagation of a focused femtosecond laser pulse in air and its ionized electron dynamics and plasma-induced pulse reshaping

AU - Yu, Yanwu

AU - Jiang, Lan

AU - Cao, Qiang

AU - Shi, Xueshong

AU - Wang, Qingsong

AU - Wang, Guoyan

AU - Lu, Yongfeng

PY - 2016/3/1

Y1 - 2016/3/1

N2 - The light-speed propagation of a focused femtosecond (fs) laser pulse in air was recorded by a pump–probe shadowgraph imaging technique with femtosecond time resolution. The ultrafast dynamics of the laser-ionized electrons were studied, which revealed a strong reshaping of the laser field due to laser–air nonlinear interaction. The influence of laser fluence and focusing conditions on the pulse reshaping was studied, and it was found that: (1) double foci are formed due to the refocusing effect when the laser fluence is higher than 500 J/cm2 and the focusing numeric aperture (NA) is higher than 0.30; and (2) a higher NA focusing lens can better inhibit the prefocusing effect and nonlinear distortion in the Gaussian beam waist.

AB - The light-speed propagation of a focused femtosecond (fs) laser pulse in air was recorded by a pump–probe shadowgraph imaging technique with femtosecond time resolution. The ultrafast dynamics of the laser-ionized electrons were studied, which revealed a strong reshaping of the laser field due to laser–air nonlinear interaction. The influence of laser fluence and focusing conditions on the pulse reshaping was studied, and it was found that: (1) double foci are formed due to the refocusing effect when the laser fluence is higher than 500 J/cm2 and the focusing numeric aperture (NA) is higher than 0.30; and (2) a higher NA focusing lens can better inhibit the prefocusing effect and nonlinear distortion in the Gaussian beam waist.

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Ultrafast imaging the light-speed propagation of a focused femtosecond laser pulse in air and its ionized electron dynamics and plasma-induced pulse reshaping

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