1 February 2001

Optics Communications 188 (2001) 181186

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Transverse ring formation of a focused femtosecond laser pulse propagating in air

S.L. Chin a, N. Akzbek b, A. Proulx a, S. Petit a, C.M. Bowden b,* o
b

Centre d'Optique, Photonique, et Laser (COPL) and Dept. de Physique, Universite Laval, Que., Qc, Canada G1K 7P4 US Army Aviation and Missile Command Research, Engineering and Development Center, Huntsville, AL 35898-5000, USA Received 22 September 2000; accepted 20 November 2000

Abstract We observe the formation of ring patterns of a focused femtosecond near IR laser pulse propagating in air before the geometrical focal point. These rings are due to the combined eects of self-focusing and defocusing created by the generated plasma via multiphoton/tunnel ionization of air. Qualitative agreement is found with numerical simulations, using input conditions similar to those in the experiment. 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Nonlinear optics; Self-focusing; Photoionization; Ultrafast processes; Nonlinear phenomena; Waves, Wave propagation and other interactions

1. Introduction The formation of laments in air by the use of high-power femtosecond laser pulses has been the subject of intense interest both experimentally and theoretically [126] for the past several years. Potential practical applications of this phenomenon include lightning discharge control [1,2] and remote sensing [12,14]. Besides its possible applications it is also very interesting from a fundamental nonlinear dynamics point of view. The underlying physical mechanism, which leads to the formation of laments in air, is due to a dynamic competition between self-focusing and defocusing created by the generated plasma [22,23]. However, in general the full dynamics of these pulses is complicated since
Corresponding author. Fax: +1-256-9557216. E-mail addresses: nakozbek@hotmail.com (N. Akzbek), o cmbowden@ws.redstone.army.mil (C.M. Bowden).
*

they undergo strong reshaping both temporally and spatially. Due to the high intensity in the lament incorporating measurement devices directly into the beam is very dicult. To further elucidate this phenomenon we use a focused laser pulse and recorded damage patterns on a silicate glass plate for various propagation distances. We observe a complicated ring formation on these plates, which are attributed to self-focusing, and plasma defocusing. To the best of our knowledge this is the rst experimental observation of ring formation with near IR pulses, propagating in air. The damages are scanned by a DekTak II prolometer. This allows us to get a direct measure of the ablation prole, which gives us a measure of the distributed transverse uence of the laser pulse. This in turn provides information pertinent to the lament, which can be compared with theoretical predictions. Numerical simulations using similar laser input parameters agree qualitatively with the experimental results.

0030-4018/01/$ - see front matter 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 0 3 0 - 4 0 1 8 ( 0 0 ) 0 1 1 2 9 - 9

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2. Experiment and results The laser system consists of a Ti:sapphire oscillator followed by a regenerative and two multiple pass Ti:sapphire ampliers that can deliver pulses with energies of up to 100 mJ with a central wavelength of 800 nm. In this experiment we used a 350 fs (FWHM) pulse with energy of 85 mJ, and a 320 fs (FWHM) pulse with energy of 75 mJ. The beam diameter at 1=e2 of intensity was 1 cm. The experimental setup is depicted in Fig. 1. The laser

Fig. 1. Shown is the experimental setup. The laser pulse is focused by a lens with a focal length of 150 cm. At various positions (before the geometrical focal point) a glass plate was placed in front of the beam, creating a damage pattern on the surface of the plate. The damage was then analyzed with a phase contrast microscope.

pulse is focused by a lens with a focal length of 150 cm corresponding to an f-number F 150. At various positions a silicate glass is inserted. The photograph of the damage at the surface of the plate was taken with a phase-contrast microscope and the corresponding depth prole across the diameter was taken with a DekTak scan. Fig. 2 shows the beautiful rings burnt into the glass at a position of 149.5 cm just before the geometrical focus. We observe in Fig. 2(a) a central damage zone surrounded by a small unablated region followed by a rather homogeneous ablated region, which is then surrounded by a more complex outer structure. The corresponding depth prole across the damage diameter is shown in Fig. 2(b), which exhibits indeed a strong central damage crater followed by a secondary crater. The intensity between the rst and secondary crater was not high enough to create damage; thus the formation of the damage pattern is a direct result from the uence prole of the laser pulse. The outer ne rings do not show up on the prole due to the resolution of the DekTak scanner, but a third crater is slightly visible giving rise to another ablated region. We show in Fig. 3, for slightly dierent input parameters (320 fs (FWHM) and 75 mJ), the evolution of the depth prole for dierent propagation distances. Fig. 3(a) and (b) are the depth proles before the geometrical

Fig. 2. Shown (a) is the damage pattern created by the laser pulse (350 fs, 85 mJ) at a position of 149.5 cm (before the geometrical focus) and (b) the corresponding depth prole taken with a DekTek scan across the damage diameter, which is a direct measure of the uence prole of the laser pulse.

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Fig. 3. The depth prole taken across the damage prole with the DekTek scan is shown at positions (a) 143.5 cm (b) 149.5 cm and (c) 157 cm. Here the input laser pulse width was 320 fs with an input energy of 75 mJ. Initially, there is a strong central crater followed by a secondary crater, which indicates the formation of rings. Note the peak in the center part of the damage prole in (a) which disappears in (b) and reappears again in (c). This peak would translate as a dip in the center of the uence prole.

focal point at 143.5 and 149.5 cm, respectively. Note in Fig. 3(a) the small peak in the center of the main crater. This would translate as a dip in the uence prole. As we approach the geometrical focal point this center peak disappears as seen in Fig. 3(b). However, such a dip in the uence reappears beyond the geometrical focal point shown in Fig. 3(c) at a distance of 157 cm, but the secondary rings have signicantly diminished. This dynamic behavior of the uence prole is qualitatively in agreement with numerical simulations as we discuss in detail in the next section.

3. Theoretical predictions and discussion We consider the propagation of an input collimated paraxial Gaussian beam focused by a lens: Ar; s; z 0 A0 exp r2 =w2 s2 =s2 ikr2 =2f , 0 0 where w0 and s0 are the initial beam radius and pulse width, respectively, f is the focal length of the lens, and k n0 k0 n0 x=c with n0 % 1. The propagation equation including diraction, self-focusing and plasma defocusing, for the slowly varying envelope function Ar; s; z is given as, (in the retarded time coordinate frame s t z=mg )

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    2 o 1 o 1 o 2pe2 Ne 2 i iC n2 k0 jAj oz 2k or2 r or kme c2 Ar; s; z 0; 1a

Ne is the generated electron density via multiphoton/tunnel ionization and is governed by oNe N0 R: os 1b

Here, n2 is related to the third order nonlinear susceptibility of air. N0 is the number density of neural air molecules and the ionization rate R 2n 2m 0:2rO2 jAj 0:8rN2 jAj where rO2 , rN2 , n, m are the cross-sections and eective multiphoton numbers, respectively for O2 and N2 obtained from experimentally measured ionization rates [27], (Here we assumed that air is 20% O2 and 80% N2 ) and C describes ionization losses. We have neglected the eect of dispersion since the ratio of the diraction length of the focused laser beam to the dispersion length is much smaller than unity. In addition we consider an instantaneous Kerr response. We integrate Eqs. (1a) and (1b) with initial conditions as close as possible to the experiment. However, due to the xed grid points used in the

numerical scheme a smaller input beam diameter and focal length of the lens is used such that the fnumber is the same as in the experiment. The peak input power in the experiment was about 0:2 TW which is about 3520 times the critical power for self-focusing in air (experimental estimation of the critical power lies between 6 and 10 GW [3,811]). The input parameters considered in the numerical simulations are taken as, w0 0:2 cm, s0 297 fs, f 60 cm ( f-number F 150), (z0 pw2 =k0 is the 0 diraction length of the collimated input beam), and P0 20Pcr , where Pcr k2 =2pn0 n2 is the critical 0 power for self-focusing in the CW limit, which is about 3 GW for n2 5 1019 cm2 =W [28]. This critical value is somewhat smaller than estimated by experiment, which could be due to the fact that the nonlinear response is not purely Kerr-like. In Fig. 4(a) the simulated uence (normalized to the peak input uence) is plotted as a function of the transverse coordinates x and y (measured in units of the initial beam radius) before the geometrical focal point at a position of 59.75 cm. Alternatively, in Fig. 4(b) the positions of the rings are plotted on a 2-D plot. We clearly see the formation of the rings of the uence prole, which agrees well with the experimental observations. There is a central part followed by a secondary ring and further out we see

Fig. 4. Shown in (a) are numerical results for the uence (normalized to the peak input uence) prole depicted in 3-D as a function of the transverse coordinates x and y measured in units of the initial beam radius and (b) is the corresponding ring structure plotted in 2D, where only the peaks of the rings are shown. The uence distribution in (a) is in good qualitative agreement with the experimentally observed damage prole shown in Fig. 2(b) in which the ring formation is clearly observed. The outer rings depicted in Fig. 2(a) are also apparent in (b).

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Fig. 5. The uence (normalized to the peak input uence) is plotted as a function of r=w0 at positions of (a) 59.5 cm (b) 60.5 cm (c) 68 cm. Note the appearance of the dip in the center of the uence prole which disappears in (b) and reappears in (c) again. The evolution of the uence prole as a function of propagation distance is in qualitative agreement with the damage proles observed in the experiment depicted in Fig. 3.

a third ring. To better see the evolution of the uence in Fig. 5 we exhibit the uence prole at different propagation distances. Fig. 5(a) is the uence prole before the geometrical focal point at 59.5 cm. Note the appearance of the dip in the central part of the uence, which is also observed experimentally in Fig. 3(a). Such a dip in the uence prole was also obtained in Refs. [18,19] in their numerical results. At a position of 60.5 cm in Fig. 5(b) (beyond the geometrical focal point) this center dip disappears but reappears at a further distance at 68 cm in Fig. 5(c). This is in qualitative agreement with the experiment where we see the reappearance of the central dip beyond the geometrical focal point. Note also that in Fig. 5(c) the secondary rings are diminished which is also the case in the experiment; see Fig. 3(c). Most recently ring

formation has also been observed with UV laser pulses [25]. The ne ring structure outside the central part, however, may not come directly from the pulse but rather could be due to the reection of the front part of the pulse from the surface interfering with the rest of the pulse. Since the reected wave front is strongly divergent whereas the back of the incident pulse is strongly convergent their interference would give rise to additional rings spanning over the entire surface region. However, the central coarse ring structure is not a result of interference since no such ring structure was observed when the experiment was performed in vacuum with the same initial conditions. Thus, these rings are a direct result from the self-focusing and defocusing of laser beam.

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4. Conclusion In conclusion, we observed the formation of ring structure during the propagation of a focused femtosecond laser pulse. These rings are due to the combined eects of self-focusing, and defocusing by the plasma. Numerical simulations at least qualitatively agree with the ring formation before and after the geometrical focal point. We plan to investigate more quantitatively the ring formation by including reections and interactions with the surface into our present theoretical model.

Acknowledgements N.A. would like to thank the nancial support from the National Research Council and is grateful to Dr. M. Scalora for helpful discussions. S.L.C. acknowledges the support of NSERC, the Department of National Defence Canada via the Defence Research Establishment Valcartier and le fonds FCAR and would like to thank Drs. A. Talebpour, O.G. Kosareva, and V.P. Kandidov for fruitful discussions. The authors also would like to thank S. Lagace and J. Yang for their valuable technical help. References
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