This article is cited in 1 paper

Nonlinear optical phenomena

Peculiarities of the spatial focusing of a high-power femtosecond laser pulse in air

Yu. E. Geints, A. A. Zemlyanov

Institute of Atmospheric Optics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, Tomsk

Abstract: The propagation of focused high-power femtosecond laser pulses in air is numerically simulated. The dependences of the effective average size of a focal spot and the maximum achievable radiation intensity in the focal beam waist on the peak power of incident radiation are studied. It is shown that in the regime of nonstationary self-action of radiation, due to photoionisation of the medium and formation of plasma, it becomes impossible to focus radiation into a spot of diffraction-limited size predicted by a linear theory.

PACS: 42.68.Ay, 42.65.Re, 33.80.Eh

Received: 04.04.2008

 English version: Quantum Electronics, 2008, 38:12, 1127–1134

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