Laser ignition of lean fuels offers a promising route for green combustion with high combustion efficiency and low exhaust emissions. The fundamental limitations which apply to femtosecond laser ignition(fs-LI) of lea...Laser ignition of lean fuels offers a promising route for green combustion with high combustion efficiency and low exhaust emissions. The fundamental limitations which apply to femtosecond laser ignition(fs-LI) of lean fuels are the inferior energy deposition and low thermodynamic temperature. However, it was discovered recently that the fs laser filamentation can induce 100% success rate of fs-LI with ultralow sub-m J minimum ignition energy, exhibiting distinct contrast to the general understanding that it is hard to achieve fs-LI. The present contribution examines the extent to which the minimum ignition energies depend on filamentation formation, and explores the key factors for the success of fs-LI. We perform fs-LI of a lean-fuel CH;/air mixture using a femtosecond near-infrared(~40 fs, 800 nm) pulse at different external focal conditions, and find a Goldilocks focal zone to facilitate fs-LI. In this special zone, a crucial balance between the length of igniting “line” kernel and the plasma density of the fs laser filament is achieved, which determines not only the total amount of resultant OH radicals, but also their distribution along the plasma filament. Our finding provides a viable strategy with clear guidelines for fs-LI, and also opens up an avenue of exploring unprecedented ultrafast ignition dynamics after fs-laser-fuel interactions towards gaining deeper insights into reaction intermediates and combustion processes.展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 62027822 and 11904121)。
文摘Laser ignition of lean fuels offers a promising route for green combustion with high combustion efficiency and low exhaust emissions. The fundamental limitations which apply to femtosecond laser ignition(fs-LI) of lean fuels are the inferior energy deposition and low thermodynamic temperature. However, it was discovered recently that the fs laser filamentation can induce 100% success rate of fs-LI with ultralow sub-m J minimum ignition energy, exhibiting distinct contrast to the general understanding that it is hard to achieve fs-LI. The present contribution examines the extent to which the minimum ignition energies depend on filamentation formation, and explores the key factors for the success of fs-LI. We perform fs-LI of a lean-fuel CH;/air mixture using a femtosecond near-infrared(~40 fs, 800 nm) pulse at different external focal conditions, and find a Goldilocks focal zone to facilitate fs-LI. In this special zone, a crucial balance between the length of igniting “line” kernel and the plasma density of the fs laser filament is achieved, which determines not only the total amount of resultant OH radicals, but also their distribution along the plasma filament. Our finding provides a viable strategy with clear guidelines for fs-LI, and also opens up an avenue of exploring unprecedented ultrafast ignition dynamics after fs-laser-fuel interactions towards gaining deeper insights into reaction intermediates and combustion processes.
