Self-compression by femtosecond pulse filamentation: Experiments versus numerical simulations

Journal Article · Wed Nov 15 00:00:00 EST 2006 · Physical Review. E, Statistical Physics, Plasmas, Fluids, and Related Interdisciplinary Topics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVE.74.056604· OSTI ID:21072356

Skupin, Stefan; Berge, Luc ^[1]; Stibenz, Gero; Sokollik, Thomas; Schnuerer, Matthias; Zhavoronkov, Nickolai; Steinmeyer, Guenter ^[2]; Lederer, Falk ^[3]

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1. Departement de Physique Theorique et Appliquee, CEA-DAM/Ile de France, B.P. 12, 91680 Bruyeres-le-Chatel (France)
2. Max-Born-Institut fuer Nichtlineare Optik und Kurzzeitspektroskopie, Max-Born-Strasse 2a, 12489 Berlin (Germany)
3. Institute for Condensed Matter Theory and Solid State Optics, Friedrich-Schiller-Universitaet Jena, Max-Wien-Platz 1, 07743 Jena (Germany)

We analyze pulse self-compression in femtosecond filaments, both experimentally and numerically. We experimentally demonstrate the compression of 45 fs pulses down to a duration of 7.4 fs at millijoule pulse energies. This sixfold compression in a self-generated filament does not require any means for dispersion compensation and is highly efficient. We compare our results to numerical simulations, providing a complete propagation model that accounts for full dispersion, pressure variations, Kerr nonlinearity and plasma generation in multiphoton and tunnel regimes. The equations are numerically integrated and allow for a quantitative comparison with the experiment. Our experiments and numerical simulations reveal a characteristic spectrotemporal structure of the self-compressed pulses, consisting of a compressible blue wing and an incompressible red pedestal. We explain the underlying mechanism that leads to this structure and examine the scalability of filament self-compression with respect to pulse energy and gas pressure.

• OSTI ID: 21072356
• Journal Information: Physical Review. E, Statistical Physics, Plasmas, Fluids, and Related Interdisciplinary Topics, Vol. 74, Issue 5; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.74.056604; (c) 2006 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1063-651X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COMPRESSION
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
KERR EFFECT
MULTI-PHOTON PROCESSES
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
OPTICAL DISPERSION
PLASMA
PULSES