Abstract
The filamentation of ultrashort pulses in air was investigated. Beam propagation was shown to be driven by the interplay between random nucleation of small-scale cells and relaxation to long waveguides. It was shown that filaments triggered by an isotropic noise are confined into distinct clusters called 'optical pillars'. The evolution of the 'optical pillars' was approximated by an averaged-in-time two dimensional model derived from the standard propagation equations.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 046602 |
| Pages (from-to) | 046602-1-046602-15 |
| Journal | Physical Review E - Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics |
| Volume | 70 |
| Issue number | 4 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 2004 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
The authors thank Dr. S. Champeaux for preliminary works during a stay at Jena University and Cl. Gouédard for preparing data files of the experimental input beams. L.B. thanks Dr. M. Kolesik from Tucson University for fruitful discussions. Experiments were performed in the framework of the Teramobile project, funded jointly by CNRS and DFG.