Stable,intense supercontinuum light generation at 1 kHz by electric field assisted femtosecond laser filamentation in air

Supercontinuum(SC)light source has advanced ultrafast laser spectroscopy in condensed matter science,biology,physics,and chemistry.Compared to the frequently used photonic crystal fibers and bulk materials,femtosecond laser filamentation in gases is damage-immune for supercontinuum generation.A bottleneck problem is the strong jitters from filament induced self-heating at kHz repetition rate level.We demonstrated stable kHz supercontinuum generation directly in air with multiple mJ level pulse energy.This was achieved by applying an external DC electric field to the air plasma filament.Beam pointing jitters of the 1 kHz air filament induced SC light were reduced by more than 2 fold.The stabilized high repetition rate laser filament offers the opportunity for stable intense SC generation and its applications in air.

Pulse repetition rate effect on the plasma inside femtosecond laser filament in air

The characteristics of plasmas play an important role in femtosecond laser filament-based applications.Spectroscopic analysis is used to experimentally investigate the plasma density and its temperature of the air filament under different pulse repetition rates.In our experiments,the measured average plasma density of the filament is 1.54×10^(17)cm^(-3)and the temperature of the plasma is about 5100 K under 100 Hz pulse repetition rate.The plasma density decreases to1.43×10^(17)cm^(-3)and the temperature increases to 6230 K as the pulse repetition rate increases to 1000 Hz.The experimental observation agrees with the numerical simulation by solving the nonlinear Schr?dinger equations with repetition rate related“low density hole”correction.

Pulse repetition-rate effect on the intensity inside a femtosecond laser filament in air

As intense,ultrashort,kHz-repetition-rate laser systems become commercially available,pulse cumulative effects are critical for laser filament-based applications.In this work,the pulse repetition-rate effect on femtosecond laser filamentation in air was investigated both numerically and experimentally.The pulse repetition-rate effect has negligible influence at the leading edge of the filament.Clear intensity enhancement from a high-repetition pulse is observed at the peak and tailing edge of the laser filament.As the repetition rate of the laser pulses increases from 100 to 1000 Hz,the length of the filament extends and the intensity inside the filament increases.A physical picture based on the pulse repetition-rate dependent‘low-density hole’effect on filamentation is proposed to explain the obtained results well.

Verification of a Modified Nonhydrostatic Global Spectral Dynamical Core Based on the Dry-Mass Vertical Coordinate: Three-Dimensional Idealized Test Cases

The newly developed nonhydrostatic(NH)global spectral dynamical core is evaluated by using three-dimensional(3D)benchmark tests with/without moisture.This new dynamical core differs from the original Aladin-NH like one in the combined use of a dry-mass vertical coordinate and a new temperature variable,and thus,it inherently conserves the dry air mass and includes the mass sink effect associated with precipitation flux.Some 3D dry benchmark tests are first conducted,including steady state,dry baroclinic waves,mountain waves in non-sheared and sheared background flows,and a dry Held–Suarez test.The results from these test cases demonstrate that the present dynamical core is accurate and robust in applications on the sphere,especially for addressing the nonhydrostatic effects.Then,three additional moist test cases are conducted to further explore the improvement of the new dynamical core.Importantly,in contrast to the original Aladin-NH like one,the new dynamical core prefers to obtain simulated tropical cyclone with lower pressure,stronger wind speeds,and faster northward movement,which is much closer to the results from the Model for Prediction Across Scales(MPAS),and it also enhances the updrafts and provides enhanced precipitation rate in the tropics,which partially compensates the inefficient vertical transport due to the absence of the deep convection parameterization in the moist Held–Suarez test,thus demonstrating its potential value for full-physics global NH numerical weather prediction application.

Polarization dependent clamping intensity inside a femtosecond filament in air

Laser polarization and its intensity inside a filament core play an important role in filament-based applications.However,polarization dependent clamping intensity inside filaments has been overlooked to interpret the polarization-related filamentation phenomena.Here,we report on experimental and numerical investigations of polarization dependent clamping intensity inside a femtosecond filament in air.By adjusting the initial polarization from linear to circular,the clamping intensity is increased by 1.36 times when using a 30 cm focal length lens for filamentation.The results indicate that clamping intensity inside the filament is sensitive to laser polarization,which has to be considered to fully understand polarizationrelated phenomena.

Time-resolved measurements of electron density and plasma diameter of 1 kHz femtosecond laser filament in air

The temporal evolutions of electron density and plasma diameter of 1 kHz femtosecond laser filament in air are experimentally investigated by utilizing a pump-probe longitudinal diffraction method.A model based on scalar diffraction theory is proposed to extract the spatial phase shift of the probe pulse from the diffraction patterns by the laser air plasma channel.The hydrodynamic effect on plasma evolution at 1 kHz filament is included and analyzed.The measured initial peak electron density of~10^(18)cm^(-3) in our experimental conditions decays rapidly by nearly two orders of magnitude within200 ps.Moreover,the plasma channel size rises from 90μm to 120μm as the delay time increases.The experimental observation is in agreement with numerical simulation results by solving the rate equations of the charged particles.