Influence of negative leader propagation on the triggering and guiding of high voltage discharges by laser filaments

R. Ackermann, G. Méchain, G. Méjean, R. Bourayou, M. Rodriguez, K. Stelmaszczyk, J. Kasparian, J. Yu, E. Salmon, S. Tzortzakis, Y. B. André, J. F. Bourrillon, L. Tamin, J. P. Cascelli, C. Campo, C. Davoise, A. Mysyrowicz, R. Sauerbrey, L. Wöste, J. P. Wolf

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66 Scopus citations

Abstract

The triggering and guiding of negative discharges using filaments induced by a femtosecond-terawatt laser pulse have been studied in sphere-plane gaps up to 4.5 meters. Fast-frame camera pictures allow the evaluation of the influence of the negative leader propagation on the triggering and guiding process. We show that the plasma channel can either trigger a space-leader discharge or act as a guiding path for the negative leader head. For the latter case the results suggest a linear dependence of the guided lengths up to 2.4 m, while the formation of a space-leader reduces this guided length by up to 50%. This effect is explained by the limited plasma lifetime of the filament that is measured to be about 1 μs.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)561-566
Number of pages6
JournalApplied Physics B: Lasers and Optics
Volume82
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2006
Externally publishedYes

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